Glasgow City seals £7m deal with Farid Hillend Engineering and Arcola for 19 hydrogen-powered RCVs

Recycling vehicle manufacturer Farid Hillend Engineering, in partnership with Arcola Energy, has won a £7m contract by Glasgow City Council to deliver and maintain 19 hydrogen fuel powered trucks.

The deal, revealed at a recent council meeting, will see the fleet of 26-tonne hydrogen fuel cell electric refuse collection vehicles (RCVs) delivered and maintained over a five-year period by the partnership.

The vehicles are expected to be fully operational by October 2022 with the first truck being delivered to the council at the beginning of January next year.

Glasgow is set to have the largest fleet of hydrogen-powered bin lorries in the world after councillors agreed a £10.5m funding package in March this year. The investment will also include the building of a green refuelling station in the city and comes ahead of Glasgow hosting the COP 26 UN climate change summit.

George Gillespie, an executive director at the council, said decarbonising the council’s fleet was “vital” to plans to be carbon neutral by 2030.

“We have taken tremendous strides with the implementation of our zero-emissions fleet strategy,” he added.