C/CAG Ford E-450 H2ICE Shuttle Demonstration Project … Riding Into the Future
 NOTE: Content below is from 2009 event. Check back 3-4 weeks before the event for updated information.
Vehicles thought to be science fiction are now reality. Unveiled in 2004, Ford Motor Company’s vice president of Research and Engineering, Dr. Gerhard Schmidt declared, “the [Ford E-450 Hydrogen Internal Combustion Engine (H2ICE) Shuttle] is a product we could market to customers who need to move people in an efficient, environmentally friendly way.”
Efficient and environmentally friendly were what the City and County Association of Governments (C/CAG) of San Mateo County were looking for when they picked the Ford E-450 H2ICE to lead their hydrogen fuel demonstration project, a partnership with the California Air Resources Board, the San Mateo County Transportation Authority and the Santa Clara Valley Transportation Authority (VTA). The Shuttle burns pure hydrogen (H2) with at efficiency 5% better than similar gasoline powered while emitting nearly 98% less CO2 into the air.
 In 2007, forty-three San Mateo County residents made history and rode into the future on the maiden voyage of the Ford E-450 H2ICE. Since then, the Shuttle carries an average of 34 passengers per day, reducing greenhouse gas emissions with every carbon-free ride. It is the only H2ICE Shuttle of its kind operating on the West Coast.
Don’t judge a book by its cover; although it looks like the last rental car shuttle you rode, this shuttle is the most advanced in its class. Although built on the typical Ford E-450 chassis cab, with a shuttle bus body, the 6.8-liter Triton V-10 engine is modified to be fueled with H2. The Shuttle seats up to 12 passengers, including the driver, can store the equivalent of 26 gallons of H2 in a 5,000 pound per square inch fuel tank and can travel up to 150 miles on a single tank.
As H2 fuel cell technology continues to mature, Ford “believes that H2ICE vehicles will play a key role in justifying infrastructure development and accelerating a transition to a hydrogen economy.” Ford is also developing other alternative/renewable fuel technologies including clean diesel and H2 fuel cell technologies.
In support of this project and other similar projects in the future, C/CAG is developing partnerships to develop fueling infrastructure for alternative/renewable fuels, such as H2. Like Ford, C/CAG and its partners believe H2ICE is a technology that will make H2 fuel, more practical.
Checkout the Ford E-450 H2ICE Shuttle and experience the future of transportation at Connoisseurs' Marketplace, July 17-18 from 10 a.m. to 6 p.m. on Santa Cruz Avenue in Menlo Park.
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