Developments in fuel cells

Automotive engineers are concentrating on providing quick startup, cost reduction, mass manufacturability, and crash safety.

The casual observer might think that progress on the development of fuel-cell technology for mass production slowed in 2001. The era of huge annual leaps in fuel-cell power output and amazing reductions in the volume required seems to have past, so it could easily seem as if development is slowing.

But, in fact, engineers across the industry are tackling even harder parts of the problem now, according to Paul Lancaster, Vice President of Finance for Ballard Power Systems. In previous years, companies were still working on proofs-of-concept; they needed to build a vehicle that could move under its own power.