‘TAXI OF THE FUTURE’: First hydrogen powered taxis in Hamburg licensed

The first hydrogen-powered taxis have been licensed in the German city of Hamburg and are now on the streets plying their trade.

The Toyota Mirai vehicles were funded by the “Taxi of the Future” project. With the project, the city of Hamburg, together with project partners from the trade and other companies, are supporting the taxi industry in switching to local emission-free taxis.

An impressive 350 e-taxis have been licensed in Hamburg – before the start of the project in April 2021 there were exactly 5. While the other e-taxis have so far only been operated with a battery, the Mirai uses hydrogen to drive its e-motor.

As part of the Climate Protection Act, the Hamburg Senate decided this week that from 1 January 2025, only locally emission-free taxis will be permitted in Hamburg. The changeover has been promoted since April 2021 by the Future Taxi project and in close cooperation with the industry.

In addition to federal funding, the city of Hamburg has started two funding stages to compensate for the additional costs currently incurred for a total of 460 e-taxi (60 of which are e-taxi for wheelchair users).

Anjes Tjarks, Senator for Transport and Mobility Transition, said: “The future taxi project promotes the switch to locally emission-free vehicles and I find it very exciting that 25 hydrogen-powered vehicles are now among them.

“The feedback for previous e-taxi was exclusively positive, so we are very excited to see how the hydrogen-powered vehicles will prove themselves in everyday taxi use. But whether battery operation or hydrogen - in both cases it is important that the vehicles no longer emit any emissions when operated in Hamburg. This is an important component of our climate protection policy and shows that the taxi trade is absolutely future-proof. We will consistently continue along this path together with the industry.”

Bülent Aktas and MR Safar Nejad, Managing Partners of Best Taxi GmbH, said: “We own 150 taxis, spread over three companies. We are already supporting the Future Taxi Hamburg project with 40 zero-emission taxis. We are expanding this today with the commissioning of the 25 hydrogen-powered taxis to a total of 65 taxis.

“Our goal is to make our entire fleet emission-free by the end of the year. A further 34 purely electrically operated inclusive taxis have been ordered for wheelchair transport. The charging infrastructure for taxis must be expanded and more hydrogen filling stations must be built. We are particularly proud of our pioneering work with the first hydrogen taxis in our city of Hamburg and hope for further support from the Hanseatic City of Hamburg.”

Alexander Mönch, President of FREE NOW Germany and Austria, said: "We are proud to be able to make a decisive contribution to the successful 'Future Taxi' project with our affiliated companies and to be able to offer all Hamburg residents a strong, locally emission-free fleet via our app. Together with the now integrated, hydrogen-powered taxis, almost 80 percent of the emission-free taxis in the Hanseatic city can already be booked via FREE NOW.

“We are sure that we will continue to increase this number in 2023. With successful initiatives of this kind, our company is gradually getting closer to the goal it has set itself of achieving 100 percent net-zero emissions throughout Europe by 2030. The city of Hamburg is once again demonstrating its pioneering role in effective measures to turn around traffic in German cities.”