Press Release
- Volkswagen is a founding member
- Fraunhofer Institute sets up project group in Wolfsburg
A "State Fuel Cell Initiative" will be officially launched on 30 March in partnership with Lower Saxony's Ministries for Economics, the Environment, and Science.
Three "Competence Nodes" are to be set up in Lower Saxony with the aim of exploiting the opportunities offered by fuel cell technology. These nodes focus on three separate fields: automotive applications, high-temperature fuel cells for power stations/residential applications, and training in the application of fuel cells.
Wolfsburg has been chosen as the location for the area of automotive applications. The Fraunhofer Project Group for Sustainable Mobility will start work with the support of Volkswagen. It has the task of identifying innovative companies of the future in Lower Saxony and bringing them together to form a network via interdisciplinary projects. The objective is to create new jobs and promote Lower Saxony's continued development into a "high-tech" location.
At the press conference Volkswagen is presenting a T5 Multivan equipped with a hydrogen fuel cell. The vehicle has an on-board auxiliary power unit (APU) with an output of 5 kW, capable of powering a high-performance auxiliary air conditioner or providing a 220 Volt alternating current for a range of electrical equipment, such as a laptop, coffee machine, light, TV etc.
To meet the need for sustainable mobility concepts Volkswagen is pursuing fuel cell technology as a long-term strategy. This technology is seen as offering not only the greatest potential to reduce fuel consumption, but also the longer-term prospect of ending dependence on fossil fuels. For the period until fuel cell development has reached the implementation stage, Volkswagen's fuel strategy is to pursue in the short term the further development of synthetic fuels and a change to biogenic fuels (SunFuel) in the medium term. This means that Volkswagen is initiating and promoting both fuel cell technology and activities for new ways of using biomass, since there will be a coexistence of the internal combustion engine and the fuel cell over a period of decades.
