Carmaker Stellantis said on Wednesday it will begin deliveries in Europe of its first medium-sized vans powered by hydrogen fuel cells by the end of 2021.
The group was formed by the merger of Fiat Chrysler and PSA in the early 2021 said on wednesday that the hydrogen fuel cell based vans will be launched under the brands of Peugeot, Citroen, and Opel.
Fuel cell based passenger car will be launched later
Combustion engine versions of the van are currently assembled in France under the names Peugeot Expert, Citroen Jumpy and Opel Vivaro. In 2020 Stellantis sold nearly 130,000 mid-size vans globally.
The hydrogen fuel cell model will be assembled in Russelsheim, Germany, using technology developed by Symbio, a joint venture of Michelin and Faurecia.
Stellantis said its vans will have a range of around 400 kilometres (249 miles) and can refuel with hydrogen in just three minutes.
Stellantis said on Wednesday that Germany currently has 90 hydrogen stations, and France just 25 - a tiny fraction of the thousands of petrol stations available for fossil-fuel models today.
The preliminary specs say that Stellantis's FCVs will be able to achieve a range of more than 400 km (250 miles) WLTP and refuel the hydrogen in about 3 minutes.
The cargo volume and loading capacity will be the same as in the combustion engine version. And finally, the vehicle will be 100% zero-emission.
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The 10.5 kWh battery with an output of 90 kW and possible charging power of 11 kW (for overnight charging) would be an additional perk (its role is mostly auxiliary - because fuel cells lack power flexibility - as the battery range will be very small).
The electric motor (100 kW and 260 Nm) will be shared with the battery-electric models.
The currently available PSA mid-size vans already can be ordered in one of two battery versions (50 and 75 kWh), with a WLTP range of up to 330 km (205 miles), and battery energy density has the potential to be improved.
Those vehicles can also DC fast charge (by 80% SOC) in 30 or 45 minutes, depending on battery version. You can add those missing 70-100 km (the difference to FCVs) in a matter of 10 minutes when loading/unloading the vehicle, using a 3-phase AC charging station at the shop.
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Stellantis said that it will start production of hydrogen LCVs by the end of 2021, but the location of Opel Special Vehicle (OSV) in Germany suggests that it will be only a pilot scale.
Source - Reuters and Insideevs
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