The construction just started for the very first public hydrogen station in Belgium. This hydrogen station will be open to the public by mid-2016, and will be built, maintained and operated by Air Liquide on a Toyota land adjacent to the R&D Technical and Training Centres of TME (Toyota Motor Europe) in Zaventem, near Brussels. TME is granting the right to use the land for free over a period of 20 years.

As part of the SWARM* project, the station has received funding from the European Fuel Cells and Hydrogen-Joint Undertaking, a private/public partnership in support of the development of hydrogen related applications.

This station will enable Toyota Belgium to commercialise the Mirai from first half 2016 in Belgium. It will be the fourth country in Europe to commercialise this first mass-produced fuel-cell sedan vehicle.

The japanese brand has chosen Air Liquide Group, because it’s actively involved in developing hydrogen stations around the world with a track record of 75 designed and delivered hydrogen stations globally. Recently the Group has also announced the opening of stations in Germany, Denmark and France in 2015, true to its engagement of building the first hydrogen distribution network in Europe. The creation of a distribution infrastructure is one of the most important conditions to be able to commercially deploy fuel cell vehicles.

*Small 4-Wheel fuel cell passenger vehicle Applications in Regional and Municipal transport”. This project aims to deploy 90 passenger hydrogen fuel cell cars in Europe and support infrastructure deployment. Two regions of Europe are taking part in this project: the Brussels region in Belgium, and the Wer-Ems region in Germany.