Daimler, Ford and Nissan have announced that they will jointly develop a common fuel cell system with the intention of increasing the availability of hydrogen powered vehicles at a lowest cost. The trio have said that their aim is to launch the vehicle by 2017.
They have said that each company will invest equally in the process with aim of bringing costs down and creating common designs for mass volume production as well as to maintain economies of scale. Among the three, Daimler has the maximum experience in the field of fuel cell electric vehicle (FCEV) technology. It may be recalled that Toyota and BMW had also recently signed an agreement to jointly develop green technologies which includes a fuel cell power powertrain.
Commenting on the development, Mitsuhiko Yamashita, member of the board of directors and executive vice president said, “Fuel cell electric vehicles are the obvious next step to complement today's battery electric vehicles as our industry embraces more sustainable transportation. We look forward to a future where we can answer many customer needs by adding FCEVs on top of battery EVs within the zero-emission lineup,” he added.
