Germany Awards New Fuel Cell Contracts

Germany’s Federal Ministry of Transport and Digital Infrastructure has awarded €24 million ($26 million) in projects for a range of fuel cell vehicles and hydrogen stations.

The funding is part of the second phase of the National Innovation Program (NIP) Hydrogen and Fuel Cell Technology initiative that has earmarked €1.4 billion ($1.6 billion) for commercialization programs from 2016 to 2026.

More than €710 million ($792 million) was awarded during the first phase (2006-2016), which focused on technology demonstration and demonstration programs.

The new funding projects are:

• Deutsche Post DHL Group, which gets €10 million to buy 500 fuel cell-powered street scooters for use in the parcel delivery service.
• MAN & Shell, Anleg GmbH and TU Braunschweig, which receive a combined €8 million for the development and testing of fuel cell-powered heavy-duty commercial vehicles and a mobile hydrogen refueling device.
• EvoBus, which is awarded €3 million for the development of an all-electric city bus with fuel cell range extender.
• Gunsel Fordertechnik and Fahrzeugbau, which get €1 million to buy 89 hydrogen-powered industrial trucks that will be used at BMW’s Leipzig plant.
• GHT Mobility (CleverShuttle), which receives €755,000 to buy 50 fuel cell vehicles for ride-sharing applications.
• FAUN Environmental Technology, which gets €521,000 for the development of hydrogen fuel cell fuel garbage collection trucks and sweepers.

NIP II also aims to expand Germany’s hydrogen fueling infrastructure from 75 stations today to 100 by the end of 2020 and 400 by 2023. That program is led by H2 Mobility Deutschland, a consortium that includes Air Liquide, Daimler, Linde Materials Handling, Austria’s OMV and European energy companies Shell and Total.