Ballard Power Systems and Quantron AG have unveiled a fuel cell commercial vehicle platform that is ready for delivery. The collaboration has been ongoing since 2021 with development and testing and the first of the new Quantron trucks have delivered in Europe. The trucks are a combination of Quantron’s engineering and Ballard’s fuel cell tech.
Ballard, based in Canada, developed the FCmove fuel cell modules being used in the Quantron trucks. Quantron has the hydrogen fuel cell systems in its 44-ton QHM FCEV heavy-duty tractor and the QLI FCEV light box truck. Both zero-emissions vehicles offer significantly longer range and shorter refueling times when compared to battery-electric options. The Quantron QHM FCEV truck is the current European range champion with 54 kg of hydrogen at 700 bar.
Quantron and Ballard worked to customize the fuel cell stack and storage systems to integrate them into the frame structure of the QHM AND QLI. This means standard trailers of standard lengths can be used with the trucks and payload capacities remain unchanged. Bodywork can be changed or upgraded in the Quantron FCEV trucks just as it can be with the conventionally-fueled models.
The companies have announced that five units have been delivered to a European customer, with one of those units having already accomplished 15,000 km in daily operations so far.
“We take immense pride in our accomplishment, having jointly developed market-ready FCEV vehicles. Both Ballard and QUANTRON mastered this in record time. This is not only first to market in the 7.5 t FCEV light vehicle segment, but we take the lead in the fuel cell technology market. We have an order and offer pipeline of up to 100 units.” —Michael Perschke, CEO of Quantron AG
Aaron is an automotive journalist living in Wyoming, USA. His background includes technology, mechanics, commercial vehicles, and new vehicle evaluations. Aaron is a member of several automotive media groups and writes for many well-known publications.