Ballard-powered fuel cell commercial vehicles have travelled 30 million km

570 buses and 2,000 trucks have been travelling for more than 30 million kilometers on hydrogen. Ballard Power System, the leading supplier of fuel cell modules, announced that the company’s proton exchange membrane (PEM) fuel cell technology and products have now successfully powered the so called FCEV (fuel cell electric vehicles) in commercial applications for a total of more than 30 million kilometers across 14 countries, enough to circle the globe 750 times.

Fuel cell commercial vehicles in Asia, Europa and North America

Ballard has a long track record of having its PEM fuel cell technology and products integrated into FCEVs to provide zero-emission motive power for vehicle propulsion. This includes in excess of 570 Fuel Cell Electric Buses (FCEBs) and 2,000 commercial trucks currently deployed in Asia, Europe and North America. Some of the FCEBs that have been operating for over 8-years in the field have now exceeded 35,000 hours of revenue service with no major fuel cell maintenance requirements, according to the Canadian supplier.

In 2019 Ballard launched the 8th generation of the fuel cell module FCmove. The new FCmove-HD is addressed to transit bus market and already adopted by Solaris Bus & Coach (CAF group) for the Urbino 12 hydrogen. The showcase of the new product was held during UITP Summit 2019 in Stockholm.

Ballard technology is also powering the Van Hool fuel cell buses for Cologne and Wuppertal, in Germany and the vehicles in operation on the first hydrogen-powered BRT worldwide launched in late 2019 in France.

Circling the globe 750 times. On hydrogen

“We are grateful to our customers who continue to trust Ballard to deliver safe, durable, reliable and high-performing PEM fuel cell products and technology for commercial FCEVs,” said Randy MacEwen, Ballard President and CEO. “Commercial vehicles powered by Ballard technology have on road experience that totals more than 30 million kilometers, which is roughly equivalent to circling the globe 750 times. Our products have powered FCEBs and commercial trucks in 14 countries around the world, and delivered 97.3% availability in 2019. Ballard’s unmatched field experience – through eight generations of fuel cell power module and a wide range of duty cycles, climate and road conditions – has enabled an effective feedback loop for our product design and development efforts, resulting in the fuel cell industry’s highest performance products designed for Heavy- and Medium-Duty Motive applications, including bus, commercial truck, train and marine.”