Big News For Drivers: Dual-Colour Number Plates For Hydrogen Vehicles Coming Soon

The Ministry of Road Transport and Highways is mulling to introduce dual-colour number plates for hydrogen-powered vehicle, for streamlining their identification on the roads. The number plates will vary from the vehicle's purpose, combining with green and blue backgrounds.

The draft notification, as per the ministry, directed that hydrogen-fuel-operated vehicles to soon spot colour-coded number plates with green and blue combination in the backgrounds. However, the figure colours to vary from vehicle's purpose.

Along the similar lines, changes in registration plates will be made for commercial hydrogen vehicles. Their number plates to have green in the top half and a blue colour to the bottom half, with figures in yellow colour.

Meanwhile, the private hydrogen vehicles will also have a similar pattern of green and blue, but the figures will be displayed in white colour.

The colour coding will change for cab services for rent. These cabs will have black colour in the top half and blue in the bottom half, with figures displayed in yellow colour on the plate.

This development will be part of the government's initiative to promote green mobility in the country.

Earlier this year, the Ministry of New and Renewable Energy initiated five pilot projects for using Hydrogen in buses and trucks. Earlier the Ministry of New and Renewable Energy had issued guidelines for implementing Pilot projects in the Transport Sector under this Mission.

Accordingly, the proposals were invited for different types of hydrogen-based vehicles, routes, and hydrogen refuelling stations. After detailed scrutiny, the Ministry of New and Renewable Energy has sanctioned five pilot projects consisting of a total of 37 vehicles (buses and trucks), and 9 hydrogen refuelling stations. The vehicles that will be deployed for the trial include 15 hydrogen fuel cell-based vehicles and 22 hydrogen internal combustion engine-based vehicles. These vehicles will run on 10 different routes across the country viz., Greater Noida - Delhi - Agra, Bhubaneshwar - Konark - Puri, Ahmedabad - Vadodara - Surat, Sahibabad - Faridabad - Delhi, Pune - Mumbai, Jamshedpur - Kalinga Nagar, Thiruvananthapuram - Kochi, Kochi - Edappally, Jamnagar - Ahmedabad, and NH-16 Visakhapatnam - Bayyavaram. The above projects are awarded to major companies like TATA Motors Ltd, Reliance Industries Limited, NTPC, ANERT, Ashok Leyland, HPCL, BPCL, and IOCL.

One of the objectives of the Mission is to support the deployment of Green Hydrogen as fuel in buses and trucks, in a phased manner on a pilot basis. These pilot projects can demonstrate safe and secure operations, assess the effectiveness of hydrogen-based vehicles and refuelling stations, validate technical feasibility and performance, and evaluate their economic viability, thereby leading to hydrogen-based vehicles and hydrogen refuelling stations under real-world operational conditions, as per the ministry report.

Advantages of Hydrogen Cars:

As per Bajaj Allianz's website, Hydrogen-powered cars come with several advantages. Firstly, they produce zero tailpipe emissions, which contributes significantly to reducing air pollution. Secondly, the refuelling process is quick, similar to refuelling traditional vehicles, taking only a few minutes. Furthermore, fuel-cell electric vehicles offer a longer range compared to battery-electric cars, making them more practical for extended journeys. Additionally, hydrogen is the most abundant element in the universe, making its availability theoretically limitless.