It's been a big week for fuel cell vehicle announcements 1


This morning +Ford Motor Company, +Nissan and Daimler announced that they would collaborate on developing a new generation of more affordable fuel cell propulsion systems for vehicles debuting as soon as 2017. This announcement follows last week's announcement that +TOYOTA and +BMW would launch a similar collaboration. 

I've long been a proponent of hydrogen fuel cells as an alternative to batteries for propelling zero-emissions vehicles having driven my first one back in 2006   http://aol.it/VhzTls. The fuel cell technology works and it's mainly a matter of optimizing the designs to reduce manufacturing cost and working out a distribution system. 

The partnership between Ford and Daimler is a natural fit since both have long used fuel cell stacks from Ballard Power Systems. When Ballard decided to focus on stationary power systems a few years ago, Daimler bought the automotive division of the company with Ford taking a minority stake. 

The other automakers that have remained publicly committed fuel cells are +Hyundai Worldwide, +Honda and to a lesser degree +General Motors. GM has been pretty quiet on the fuel cell side in the last couple of years since winding down Project Driveway http://aol.it/ViFkyP and sending the Chevy Equinox fuel cell vehicles to Hawaii. 

THE STRATEGIC COOPERATION BETWEEN DAIMLER AND THE RENAULT-NISSAN ALLIANCE FORMS AGREEMENT WITH FORD TO ACCELERATE COMMERCIALIZATION OF FUEL CELL ELECTRIC VEHICLE TECHNOLOGY | Ford Motor Company Newsro…
THE STRATEGIC COOPERATION BETWEEN DAIMLER AND THE RENAULT-NISSAN ALLIANCE FORMS AGREEMENT WITH FORD TO ACCELERATE COMMERCIALIZATION OF FUEL CELL ELECTRIC VEHICLE TECHNOLOGY. Daimler AG, Ford Motor Com…

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