HY-GO™ in english

The aims of HY-GO™ are the establishment of a sustainable and environment-friendly hydrogen based urban traffic service in Budapest and its exploitation on the world’s other major cities. The developed fuel-cell vehicle combines comfort and speed with zero emission.

The hydrogen fuel of the vehicles will be produced from nighttime (off-peak) electric current or renewable energy. The electric energy will be utilized for several purposes: the hydrogen produced during the dissociation of water will be used as fuel, the oxygen will be sold to hospitals and industrial factories, while the heat will solve the hot water supply of several households. The surfaces of the vehicles will be let for placing advertisements, which – together with the multi-purpose utilization of the energy – will allow the economic operation.

After a successful spread of HY-GO™, it will considerably contribute to the reduction of environment pollution and the crowding of urban traffic. HY-GO™ took the first prize in the Prototype category, the prize of the most innovative vehicle and the special price of the major sponsor Honda in the 4th Széchenyi Competition of Alternatively Driven Vehicles.

Nowadays, several hundred million people live in large cities, and almost the same number of people commutes between cities and their outskirts every day. In Budapest half a million people commute every day. The present infrastructure (public transport, cars) is not sufficient, and so more and more people choose alternative forms of traffic.

In city centers bike hire services are increasingly popular for short distances. In Paris (Velib) 10 000, in Copenhagen 2000 bikes are available for rent. The service was used by 2.1 million people 27 million times only in Paris in one year. Bikes are typically used for covering 2-3 kilometers, however, according to our survey, there is a huge demand for comfortable and fast motor vehicles, which would cover 10-15 kilometers, mainly between the centre and the outskirts (P+R car parks). For covering such long distances, car-sharing models are used at present (continuously available vehicles that are shared by a few people, such as Zip-Car).

Today the number of people using car-sharing services is around 400 000 in the world, and their number has doubled in the past few years. As opposed to the several tons heavy vehicles, applied in car-sharing models, the hydrogen-driven, ultra light, partially or fully covered vehicle, constructed by us, is able to transport one or two passengers and their baggage, even for longer distances, therefore it satisfies the expectations of passengers and the requirements of sustainable traffic without compromises. According to our survey, more than the half of the population of Budapest would use HY-GO™ regularly. Taking into account the number of urban population and commuters the estimated size of the market is 100-150 thousand people only in Budapest, i.e., so many people would use the service every day. In the whole world their number may be as many as several ten million.