Ballard Power Systems has announced the planned deployment of 500 licensed fuel cell electric commercial trucks – all using Ballard fuel cell stack technology – in Shanghai, China.
Each of the 500 Dongfeng Special Vehicle trucks is licensed, plated and powered by a 30 kW fuel cell engine that was designed and integrated by Shanghai Reinventing Fire Technology Co. Ltd. (Re-Fire) and features Ballard FCvelocity-9SSL proton exchange membrane (PEM) fuel cell stacks.
Each box van truck – manufactured by Dongfeng Special Vehicle Co. Ltd. – measures 6.4 meters (21 feet) in length, can carry a load of 3.2 tons and has an expected range of more than 330 kilometers (205 miles). The trucks will be operated by Shanghai Sinotran New Energy Automobile Operation Co. Ltd., a newly established fuel cell electric vehicle (FCEV) operator, and are expected to be used primarily for intra-city deliveries of goods.
Ballard and Re-Fire have entered into a collaboration agreement under which Re-Fire has agreed to use Ballard-designed fuel cell stacks in its fuel cell engines. Ballard’s FCvelocity-9SSL stacks are now being manufactured and are available from Guangdong Synergy Ballard Hydrogen Power Co. Ltd., Ballard’s joint venture in Yunfu, Guangdong Province.
“With the integration work completed in late-2017 and all 500 commercial trucks having received green license plates for new energy vehicles in Shanghai, we are now preparing for vehicle launch,” says Robin Lin, Re-Fire’s CEO. “We expect to deploy all 500 trucks in 2018, subject to parallel activities, including appropriate scaling of fueling infrastructure and our service platform.”