Daimler and Linde Group (gases and engineering company) will team up with oil and gas companies such as TOTAL, OMV, Avia and Hoyer in order to significantly increase the numbers of hydrogen fuelling stations in Germany.
The two companies are investing around 10 million EUR in ten fuelling stations each. The first public fuelling station for fuel-cell vehicles was officially opened on 29th of September. The National Organisation Hydrogen and Fuel Cell Technology is also supporting the project and negotiations on details about the building of the seven remaining refuelling stations with additional partners.
Linde already secures half of the hydrogen for the existing fuelling stations and it will power furthermore the 20 new stations with fully regenerative hydrogen. This kind of hydrogen produces considerable fewer greenhouse gas emissions than conventional methods.
Starting 2017, Daimler AG plans to bring mass-produced fuel-cell electric vehicles to market. The premium car manufacturer formed alliances with Ford and Nissan in 2013 to speed up technology optimisation and to minimise costs. According to experts, in 2018 over ten thousand fuel-cell vehicles will be driven on European roads.
By the end of 2015, the number of hydrogen fuelling stations in Germany will reach 50 with the support of the Federal Ministry for Transport along with partner companies and organisations. Moreover, the initiative called the “H2 Mobility” which Linde, Total and OMV are part of, was agreed last year on a detailed plan of action to expand the network to around 400 stations by 2023.
Three months ago, in july, Linde opened the world’s first production facility for hydrogen fueling stations in Vienna.
