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Three Major Car Companies Join to Accelerate Development of Fuel Cells of EVs

The fuel cell electric vehicles (FCEV) sector has received a boost with the announcement that Ford, Renault-Nissan, and Daimler have made a three-way agreement to work together and accelerate the development and commercialisation of fuel cells. Under the agreement they intend to launch the “world’s first affordable, mass-market fuel cell electric vehicles” by 2017.

Raj Nair, the Group Vice President for the Ford Motor Company, explained that, “working together will significantly help speed this technology to market at a more affordable cost to our customers. We will all benefit from this relationship as the resulting solution will be better than any one company working alone.”

Mitsuhiko Yamashita, the Executive Vice President of Nissan Motor Co., said that “we look forward to a future where we can answer many customer needs by adding F.C.E.V.s on top of battery E.V.s within the zero-emission lineup.”

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Professor Thomas Weber, a member of the Board of Management of Daimler AG, said, “we are convinced that fuel cell vehicles will play a central role for zero-emission mobility in the future. Thanks to the high commitment of all three partners we can put fuel cell e-mobility on a broader basis. This means with this cooperation we will make this technology available for many customers around the globe.”

The three companies have a combined 60 years of experience in developing FCEVs, and the plan is to develop a common fuel cell that can be used by all in their own electric cars.

A deal of this size will also encourage developments to support the emerging FCEV market, such as hydrogen refilling stations, and other infrastructure and policy changes that are needed.

By. Joao Peixe of Oilprice.com



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  • David Ervins on February 19 2013 said:
    I founds some very interesting video/links that show what they are doing with Municipal Wastewater Treatment Plants and using Fuel Cell Technology to produce three value streams... Hydrogen, Electricity, and Heat! Impressive in my opinion!!


    2.8MW fuel cell using biogas now operating; Largest PPA of its kind in North America
    http://www.fuelcelltoday.com/news-events/news-archive/2012/october/28-mw-fuel-cell-using-biogas-now-operating-largest-ppa-of-its-kind-in-north-america


    "New fuel cell sewage gas station in Orange County, CA may be world's first"
    http://abclocal.go.com/kabc/story?section=news/local/orange_county&id=8310315

    "It is here today and it is deployable today," said Tom Mutchler of Air Products and Chemicals Inc., a sponsor and developer of the project.


    Microsoft Backs Away From Grid
    http://blogs.wsj.com/cio/2012/11/20/microsoft-backs-away-slowly-from-the-grid/
  • decent on January 30 2013 said:
    Fuel cells are commercially available for quite a long time. And there are several key problems why they aren't used in cars. And it is not fuelcell itself.
    First, if hydrogen is considered as a fuelcell fuel, then the fundamental problem lies in hydrogen production and storing. I don't see that car makers are able to make any changes there. These problems make using of hydrogen inefficient, which means it is more polluting and expensive than just a gasoline car. The most efficient way to produce hydrogen is from methane gas. The side effect is that carbon from methane is released into atmosphere and there are production losses. It isn't renewable source either. electric Hydrolysis is just too inefficient with 30-40% energy loss.
    There are storing problems too, as hydrogen is a gas. keeping it in liquid form adds constant energy losses. keeping under pressure adds considerable losses due to compressing. It also means storing hydrogen is expensive. Very expensive. Metallic alloys are too heavy and expensive as well. These problems lie outside car industry.
    And article don't specify what kind of direction these companies plan to go. May be they whish to develope affordable methanol or ethanol fuel cell... But only hydrogen is mentioned. yea.

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