If this company has its way, hydrogen fuel cell tech will go mainstream by 2020

Both Toyota and Honda are hedging their bets on fuel-cell powered vehicles. But if Intelligent Energy, a European-based energy tech company, has its way then the technology could find its way into the cars of a lot more manufacturers in the very near future.

The company this week announced that it will lead a European industry working group to develop and deliver its fuel cell technology to the mass automotive market. The project is called VolumetriQ and together with the likes of BMW and Daimler, will see Intelligent Energy aim to develop fuel cell stacks that can be manufactured in high volumes for use in hydrogen fuel cell vehicles by 2020.

The group is out to develop a proprietary 90kW EC fuel cell automotive technology in the funded project called VolumetriQ. According to press release sent to Motorburn, VolumetriQ is a three-year programme that will deliver a blueprint for stack suitability for mass manufacture and potential future industrialisation.

Funded by €5-million from the European programme FCH JU, the target is reportedly to develop fuel cell stacks that can be manufactured in high volumes for use in hydrogen fuel cell vehicles by 2020, building on Intelligent Energy’s industry leading PEM fuel cell technology.

“Hydrogen fuel cell powered vehicles are a reality for the ‘here and now’. To bring them to mass market, we need to ensure our fuel cell stacks are robustly industrialised, which is the aim of this programme,” said Intelligent Energy’s Director of R&T, Dr Chris Dudfield

“The results of this programme,” he adds, “will bring a significant opportunity to OEMs to deliver Intelligent Energy’s proprietary 90kW automotive fuel cell architecture in the next generation of Fuel Cell Electric Vehicles (FCEVs) which, we believe, offers the best solution to the automotive industry to scale up the production of FCEV’s and deliver vehicles that meet the demands of the consumer as well as crucially delivering zero-emissions at the tail-pipe. We are very excited to be moving our technology forward with our partners.”