Hydra Energy has announced its move into Alberta as it lands its second paying customer.

The company, which retrofits diesel engines to run on hydrogen and diesel, says it reduces emissions by about 40% without degrading performance. It announced Lodgewood Enterprises as its first paying fleet customer last year.

Now, Veteran Express Secure Logistics (VEXSL) is adopting the technology for what it says will be the world’s first hydrogen-converted armored vehicle.

“At VEXSL, we provide purposeful career opportunities to the first responder and military veteran workforce and strive to incorporate the latest technology for safer, more secure supply chains,” said VEXSL CEO Cole Fouillard.

“Retrofitting our trucks to now lessen our impact on the environment is a natural next step in our continued commitment to the communities we serve and to the ESG goals we subscribe to. The best part is Hydra’s hydrogen truck conversions cost us nothing to implement, don’t negatively impact truck performance or warranties, and don’t require us to wait over a year for new trucks as they can retrofit existing ones.” 

VEXSL is a veteran-owned and operated transportation service operating armored vehicles for high-risk, high-value deliveries in B.C., Alberta, Saskatchewan, and soon the U.S. Hydra’s Hydrogen-as-a-Service model retrofits diesel trucks at no cost to the fleet, and includes a hydrogen fuel contract that includes fueling infrastructure at cost parity with diesel.

“Alberta was a natural next step for our HaaS offering to connect from our Prince George hub further east into Canada along trucking routes,” said Hydra Energy CEO Jessica Verhagen. “We applaud the Alberta government’s efforts to enable further demonstration of the use of hydrogen in heavy-duty transportation, recognizing that transportation markets have the potential to rapidly scale their decarbonization efforts with Hydra’s commercially available technology once increased refueling infrastructure is in place.”