Mazda took another step forward towards establishing a hydrogen economy in Norway today as it delivered the first of its Norwegian-specification RX-8 Hydrogen RE model. The vehicle was unveiled as part of a ceremony celebrating the opening of the latest hydrogen filling stations, which form part of a larger project to establish a corridor of hydrogen retail outlets in Norway. With this opening, Norway’s national hydrogen project called ‘HyNor’ has taken a major step towards creating an extended hydrogen infrastructure along the 580 km Oslo to Stavanger route.
On hand at the ceremony was the Norwegian Minister of Transportation, Ms. Liv Signe Navarsete, who drove the Mazda rotary-engine sports coupe from Oslo to the Drammen station on zero-emission hydrogen. After delivery of this first facelifted version of the RX-8 Hydrogen RE, Mazda is set to provide more Norwegian-spec vehicles to the HyNor project under commercial lease contracts beginning this summer.
Mazda also leases this environmental, four-seat sports coupe in Japan, but for the HyNor project it has been developed to meet Norwegian and European specifications with left hand drive and a manual transmission. The product of 18 years of Mazda hydrogen fuel research and development, it uses a dual-fuel rotary engine that allows you to switch between using hydrogen or petrol in areas with no hydrogen infrastructure.
This latest unveiling is just one of Mazda’s environmentally-friendly technologies to be introduced as part of its ‘Sustainable Zoom-Zoom’ strategy; and includes such innovative products as next-generation clean diesel engines, and a fuel-saving idle-stop system called i-STOP.
