Deal accelerates commercialisation of fuel cell electric vehicle technology
30 January 2013
Daimler, Ford Motor Company and Nissan Motor Company have signed a three-way agreement to accelerate the commercialisation of fuel cell electric vehicle (FCEV) technology.
Left to right: Raj Nair, VP, Global Product Development, Ford Motor Company, Prof. Thomas Weber, Member of the Board of Management of Daimler AG, and Mitsuhiko Yamashita, Executive VP Nissan Motor Company (Research and Development)
The goal of the collaboration is to jointly develop a common fuel cell electric vehicle system while reducing investment costs associated with the engineering of the technology. Each company will invest equally towards the project.
The strategy to pool resources could see the launch of the world’s first affordable, mass-market FCEVs as early as 2017.
Together, Daimler, Ford and Nissan have more than 60 years of cumulative experience developing FCEVs. Their FCEVs have logged more than 10 million kilometres in test runs around the world, in customers’ hands and as part of demonstration projects across diverse conditions.
The partners plan to develop a common fuel cell stack and fuel cell system that can be used by each company in the launch of highly differentiated, separately branded FCEVs, which produce no CO2 emissions while driving.
The collaboration sends a clear signal to suppliers, policymakers and the industry to encourage further development of hydrogen refueling stations and other infrastructure necessary to allow the vehicles to be mass-marketed.
Powered by electricity generated from hydrogen and oxygen, FCEVs emit only water vapour while driving. FCEVs are considered complementary to today’s battery-electric vehicles and will help expand the range of zero-emission transportation options available to consumers.
Engineering work on both the fuel cell stack and the fuel cell system will be done jointly by the three companies at several locations around the world. The partners are also studying the joint development of other FCEV components to generate even further synergies.
Fuel cell basics
The electricity for an FCEV is produced on board the vehicle in the fuel cell stack where it is generated following an electro-chemical reaction between hydrogen - stored in a purpose-designed, high-pressure tank in the car - and oxygen from the air. The only by-products are water vapour and heat.