The UK fuel cell developer and manufacturer has developed a brand-new hydrogen fuel cell system that is smaller and more powerful than any other solution on the passenger car market – creating a breakthrough opportunity to unlock a global, zero-emission future for the sector.
As the world searches for a truly sustainable, zero-emission mobility solution, fuel cells have the potential to help overcome some of the challenges associated with Battery Electric Vehicles (BEVs), namely a dependency on limited natural resources, limited electric grid capacity, long battery charging time and limited vehicle range. Fuel cells can also be as cheap to manufacture as internal combustion engines (ICE) and can be produced from recycled and recyclable materials.
Intelligent Energy’s (IE) new IE-Drive system has been designed to give passenger car manufacturers direct access to the smaller, more powerful, turnkey and commercially viable hydrogen fuel cell solution. The single stack platform, which is the first of its kind to be designed, manufactured and tested by a British company, recently broke cover during a launch event at IE’s Loughborough headquarters where it powered a Sports Utility Vehicle (SUV) provided by Changan UK. At 157kW, the fuel cell stack is more powerful than similar passenger car alternatives and the 30% smaller heat exchanger creates packaging benefits for car manufacturers.
“With 25% of all passenger cars expected to have hydrogen fuel cell powertrains, this clean technology represents the future,” says David Woolhouse, IE’s Chief Executive. “I’m proud that, as an independent and privately-owned company, IE has developed a breakthrough solution that can open up the market for passenger car manufacturers that need to package a more powerful system into their vehicles.”
Commenting on the success of the APC-funded project that supported IE’s work in the passenger car fuel cell field, Nusrat Ghani, the Minister of State for Industry and Economic Security at the Department for Business and Trade, said, “The Advanced Propulsion Centre does an outstanding job supporting our automotive sector in the net zero transition. It’s fantastic to see their project with IE realise such an important hydrogen fuel cell technology breakthrough with a product that is designed and manufactured here in the UK.”
