ENGINEERINGNET.EU -- The goal of the collaboration is to jointly develop a common fuel cell electric vehicle system while reducing investment costs associated with the engineering of the technology.
Each company will invest equally towards the project. The strategy to maximize design commonality, leverage volume and derive efficiencies through economies of scale will help to launch the world’s first affordable, mass-market FCEVs as early as 2017.
The partners plan to develop a cell system that can be used by each company in the launch of highly differentiated, separately branded FCEVs, which produce no CO2 emissions while driving.
Engineering work will be done jointly by the three companies at several locations around the world. The partners are also studying the joint development of other FCEV components to generate even further synergies.
The collaboration across three continents and three companies will help define global specifications and component standards, an important prerequisite for achieving higher economies of scale.
The collaboration sends a clear signal to policymakers to encourage further development of hydrogen refueling stations and other infrastructure necessary to allow the vehicles to be mass-marketed.
(photo shows Raj Nair (Ford), Prof. Dr. Thomas Weber (Daimler) and Mitsuhiko Yamashita (Nissan)
