Technical and Operational Assessment of a Large-Scale Hydrogen Mobility System Under Extreme Winter Conditions: Evidence from the Beijing 2022 Winter Olympics

Abstract

As the decarbonisation of transport continues, hydrogen fuel cell vehicles (HFCVs) are attracting increasing attention, particularly in heavy-duty and high-utilisation applications where long operating ranges and rapid refuelling are required. Transferring HFCVs from individual demonstrations to large-scale fleet operation, however, depends on the joint performance of vehicles, hydrogen supply, refuelling infrastructure and operational management. Our study examines the technical and operational feasibility of large-scale hydrogen mobility using the Beijing 2022 Winter Olympic and Paralympic Games as a case study. The analysis covers vehicle deployment and scenario matching, hydrogen production and road distribution, refuelling infrastructure, digital monitoring, fleet coordination, and operational performance under extreme winter and mountainous conditions. More than 1200 HFCVs operated for 52 days across over 80 routes and accumulated more than 3.5 million vehicle-kilometres, supported by 11 hydrogen refuelling stations and approximately 20 t d−1 of hydrogen production capacity. The case study shows that successful fleet operation depended on matching vehicle configurations to transport tasks, coordinating hydrogen supply with refuelling demand, maintaining redundancy across the supply network - and integrating real time monitoring with fleet dispatch. These findings help to identify the main technical and operational conditions for large-scale hydrogen mobility and provide practical guidance for centralised applications, such as public transport, shuttle services and logistics fleets.