The Canadian fuel cell manufacturer Ballard Power Systems presented a new fuel cell stack at the UITP Global Public Transport Summit in Stockholm, Sweden, in mid-June 2019. The FCmove^TM-HD is specifically designed for the Heavy Duty Motive Market. According to the manufacturer, the compact, robust stack enables significantly more cost-effective operation and higher reliability with 50 percent fewer parts (40 percent volume and 35 percent weight reduction).

FCmove^TM is the first element in a new product family designed to cover a wide performance range for different vehicles (commercial vehicles, trucks, trains). This fuel cell stack will be used, among other things, in the 1,000 planned fuel cell buses that will be put on the road as part of the European H2Bus project (see H2-international Apr. 2019). First of all, the Polish bus manufacturer Solaris Bus & Coach will integrate the new units into its Solaris Urbino 12, which was also presented in Stockholm.

Randy MacEwen, president and CEO of Ballard: “Today, we see growing interest worldwide in the compelling performance promise that fuel cell electric vehicles alone offer in medium and heavy transport applications. With a 35 percent reduction in life cycle costs, the FCmove™-HD module represents an important step forward in the cost competitiveness of fuel cell solutions for this market.” Technical Director Dr. Kevin Colbow added: “The fuel cell module FCmove™ offers attractive customer benefits through high reliability, simplified system integration and optimised operating parameters.”