In early March 2021, ElringKlinger and Plastic Omnium declared their intention to give fresh impetus to the production of fuel cell stacks and components with their new join venture – EKPO Fuel Cell Technologies. According to company reports, the aim of EKPO, in which ElringKlinger holds a 60 percent ownership stake, is to manufacture fuel cell components at competitive prices “at first mainly for commercial vehicles and buses and then also for cars.” A production figure of up to 10,000 stacks a year is forecast. Company bosses explained that there is sufficient production capacity available to be able to realize a sales volume of between EUR 700 million and EUR 1 billion by the year 2030 which equates to a market share of 10 percent to 15 percent.
EKPO is led by three company directors: Armin Diez from ElringKlinger is chief technical officer, his colleague Gernot Stellberger is chief financial officer, while Julien Etienne from Plastic Omnium New Energies takes up the role of chief marketing officer. An important part of the joint venture deal, which was struck in October 2020, was the takeover of ElringKlinger Fuelcell Systems Austria by Plastic Omnium.
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