The Renault Group has completed its range of commercial vehicles with the Master ZE Hydrogen and the Kangoo ZE Hydrogen. Although both vans already have a 100% electric motor version, the company wanted to offer an alternative to the low range of these vehicles for professionals and fleets.

"The Renault Group has chosen the commercial vehicle market to market its first models with hydrogen. Professionals will be able to enjoy all the autonomy they need for their journeys and have record refuelling times. These benefits go further, as Master Z.E. Hydrogen and Kangoo Z.E. Hydrogen run on environmentally friendly energy and offer all the comfort of electric driving," said Denis Le Vot, head of the Commercial Vehicles Division of the Renault-Nissan Alliance.

Both hydrogen-powered models have a range extender fuel cell. This technology, developed in partnership with Symbio, provides vehicles with 10 kW of electrical and thermal power, as well as a number of benefits. These are some of the advantages of hydrogen vans over their 100% electric versions:

• Up to three times more range: the Master ZE Hydrogen reaches 350 km, compared to 120 km for the Master ZE. On the other hand, Kangoo ZE Hydrogen reaches 370 km, compared to 230 km with Kangoo ZE.
• Fast charge: 10 minutes maximum to fully recharge the hydrogen.
• 100% sustainable vehicles: converting hydrogen into electricity is a totally clean process and only releases water.

However, hydrogen is not yet a fully mature technology. In this sense, this motorization is currently not accessible to the majority, nor does it come from decarbonized production. Therefore, Renault claims that its development should be focused on company fleets, intensive uses and heavy vehicles. There are 125 hydrogen stations available in Europe, 26 of them in France, and 100 are planned for 2020.

The Renault Group has announced the launch of Kangoo ZE Hydrogen at the end of 2019 and Master ZE Hydrogen in 2020.