The three auto giants have joined forces to share Research & Development and investment for this next-generation, zero-emission technology.
Together
they will develop a common fuel cell stack and fuel cell system that
will be used in the launch of their own highly-differentiated and
separately-branded, fuel cell-powered cars, as early as 2017.“First of all, large-scale market introduction costs have to be further reduced. Together with Nissan and Ford, altogether we will be able to reach a much higher production volume, and with that enormous economies of scale,” said Prof. Thomas Weber, Member of the Board of Management of Daimler AG, Group Research & Mercedes-Benz Cars Development.
The three companies have about 60 years of cumulative experience developing fuel cell cars.
These vehicles run on electricity generated from hydrogen and oxygen — and emit only water while driving.
Thanks to this global agreement, momentum for the roll out of a hydrogen refueling infrastructure is expected to grow.
“Having an alliance with Daimler and Nissan, we hope to accelerate the development of this technology, bring it to the customers faster, and I think it’s going to be mutually beneficial to all three corporations,” said Raj Nair, Group Vice President, Global Product Development at Ford Motor Company.
Fuel
cell cars are considered complementary to today’s battery-electric
vehicles, such as Nissan LEAF, Daimler’s electric smart fortwo and
Ford’s Focus Electric.“Generally speaking, battery electric vehicles are suitable for small cars, and this fuel cell will provide more variety of vehicles, so there is such a difference,” said Mitsuhiko Yamashita, Member of the Board of Directors and Executive Vice President supervising Research and Development
The three-way collaboration among Nissan, Daimler
and Ford will mean a bigger range of zero-emission powertrains on the
global market – a major advantage for consumers, automakers and
ultimately for the planet.
