London’s Metropolitan Police Service today have begun an 18th month trial of 7 Suzuki Burgman hydrogen powered scooters. The trial period enables assessment of their suitability for the various roles in the service.

On a broader scale it will help The Metropolitan Police to understand where this clean technology could be adopted across its fleet in the future. This will contribute to the Mayor of London’s work to tackle London’s toxic air.

This trial complements a Metropolitan Police Service decision made in late 2015, to stop mandating diesel fuel for its fleet. Since then, it has been actively exploring ways to hybridise and electrify its fleet in addition to exploring other new technologies such as hydrogen

The hydrogen fuel cell scooters have a range of 75 miles and will be used by Police Community Support Officers within the Roads and Transport Policing Command based at Alperton Deployment Centre.  The trial is being run at no cost to the Met, with the loan of the vehicles from Suzuki Motor Corporation. The maintenance and fuel costs will be met by a collaborative project which is being part funded by the Advanced Propulsion Centre (APC).

Commander Neil Jerome for Territorial Policing said,

“Being the UK’s largest police service we constantly have vehicles on the roads and therefore it is our aim to make our fleet as clean as we can, whilst maintaining operational capability.

We are thankful to Suzuki and our partners and look forward with optimism about this trial. Through collaborative partnerships and innovative testing such as this, we can gain real-life experience of how we can progress our ambition and create a cleaner fleet that will benefit London and the service we provide.”

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