Asked by: Peter Gibson (Conservative - Darlington)
Question to the Department for Business and Trade:
To ask the Secretary of State for Business and Trade, for what reason hydrogen combustion engines are not eligible for automotive transformation funding.
Answered by Nusrat Ghani - Minister of State (Minister for Europe)
At present, all commercial internal combustion engines produce exhaust emissions that are harmful to health. Although some companies claim hydrogen combustion engines are close to zero NOx emissions, as well as CO2, Government has yet to see evidence to illustrate that zero harmful emissions at the exhaust are possible in either laboratory or real-world conditions.
We will continue to focus innovation support to fully zero emission solutions. However, if technology developments enable renewable hydrogen to be used in combustion engines with zero harmful tailpipe emissions, then we would welcome this development.