Ballard Power Systems says the company’s proton exchange membrane (PEM) fuel cell technology and products have now successfully powered fuel cell electric vehicles (FCEVs) in commercial heavy- and medium-duty motive applications for a cumulative total of more than 18.5 million miles on roads around the globe.
According to Ballard, the company has a long track record of having its PEM fuel cell technology and products integrated into FCEVs to provide zero-emission motive power for vehicle propulsion. This includes in excess of 570 fuel cell electric buses (FCEBs) and 2,000 commercial trucks currently deployed in Asia, Europe and North America.
Some of the FCEBs that have been operating for over eight years in the field have now exceeded 35,000 hours of revenue service with no major fuel cell maintenance requirements.
“We are grateful to our customers who continue to trust Ballard to deliver safe, durable, reliable and high-performing PEM fuel cell products and technology for commercial FCEVs,” says Randy MacEwen, president and CEO of Ballard.
“Commercial vehicles powered by Ballard technology have on-road experience that totals more than 30 million kilometers, which is roughly equivalent to circling the globe 750 times. Our products have powered FCEBs and commercial trucks in 14 countries around the world, and delivered 97.3% availability in 2019,” adds MacEwen.
In 2019, Ballard launched the FCgen-LCS next-generation PEM fuel cell stack along with FCmove, the company’s 8th-generation fuel cell power module. Ballard zero-emission PEM fuel cells are enabling electrification of mobility, including buses, commercial trucks, trains, marine vessels, passenger cars, forklift trucks and UAVs.
Photo: Ballard’s FCmove-HD fuel cell module
Ballard fuel cells use hydrogen and emit water vapor. Water vapor is the #1 cause of Climate Change by a huge amount. Much much worse than CO2. It takes more energy to produce H2 than you can get out of it. Fossil fuel Natural Gas and COAL produce electricity, electricity used in electrolysis has huge line loss in distribution as well. There are no natural sources on Earth. Once produced it can not be contained 6% escapes daily to outer space. NASA uses H2 balloons for high atmosphere tests at the edge of space. Hydrogen would cause something worse than… Read more »