China Launches 100-MPH Hydrogen/Supercapacitor Train

The world’s largest rail vehicle manufacturer has rolled out a zero-emissions train running on hydrogen fuel cells with a supercapacitor buffer. The four-car train is capable of 100 mph (160 km/h), making it the fastest hydrogen train to date.

Jointly developed by state-owned industrial monolith CRRC and Chengdu Rail Transit, this is China’s first hydrogen-powered passenger train, offering a range of 373 miles (600 km), and emitting nothing but water. It’s capable of self-driving, with 5G communications, automatic wake-up, start and stop, and return to depot functionality. Germany is ahead on this kind of thing, with some 14 hydrogen-fueled Alstom trains already in service as of last year. The CRRC machine can beat the German trains for speed by around 20 km/h (12 mph), but the German trains currently offer a much greater range at ~620 miles (1,000 km). According to Information Trends, there are just over 1,000 hydrogen stations in the world — one-third of them being in China.