BRUSSELS--(BUSINESS WIRE)--This study, based on proprietary industry data provided by the participating companies, compares the economics, sustainability and performance of four vehicle types and infrastructures. It concludes that it is vital to develop a combination of electric, fuel cell, hybrid and internal combustion engines to decarbonise mobility in Europe to reach the 80% decarbonisation goal set by the European Union.

Intelligent Energy welcomes the conclusions of the study. The constructive and open collaboration of the participating companies, despite their often different commercial interests, has led to a fact-based underpinning of the outcomes of the report: to decarbonise the transport sector, all technologies are needed. In addition, there are no commercial obstacles that prevent large scale deployment of the whole portfolio. Conclusions from the study, based on more than 10,000 proprietary data points, comprehensively identifies the key role to be played by fuel cell electric vehicles (FCEVs) as the lowest-carbon solution for long distance driving and family size cars, accounting for 50% of all cars and 75% all emissions¹.

The study points towards the world’s move from a single power-train (internal combustion engine or ICE) to a portfolio of power-trains, including battery electric vehicles (BEVs), plug-in hybrids (PHEVs) and fuel cell electric vehicles (FCEVs). It underlines the complementary nature of these technologies, each providing a solution for different environments and mobility needs. The fact-based analysis notes that FCEVs are a technologically-ready passenger transport solution that is focused on commercialising deployment by 2015. With more than 500 fuel cell cars of all sizes covering more than 15 million kilometres and 90,000 refuellings in recent years, the world’s major car manufacturers have already signalled their intentions to mass-produce FCEVs.

The work demonstrates that a hydrogen infrastructure is affordable, achievable and of comparable cost to other fuels and technologies such as an electric recharging infrastructure. It emphasises that since investment cycles in infrastructures can be lengthy, work must start now so that commercial scale up can take place.

“It is clear from this unprecedented study that fuel cell electric vehicles are an essential part of the portfolio of low-carbon solutions required for passenger vehicles,” explained Dr Henri Winand, CEO at Intelligent Energy. “The findings suggest that incentives would make fuel cell electric vehicles a cost-competitive alternative to the internal combustion engine by as early as 2020. As the next step, an in-depth analysis of a hydrogen refuelling implementation plan, starting with the German H2Mobility public-private partnership, has already been launched.”

To access the full study visit: http://www.intelligent-energy.com/movingforward/ or www.zeroemissionvehicles.eu

Contact details: Because of the comprehensive and detailed nature of this report technical questions can be put to info@zeroemissionvehicles.eu, other questions can be directed to the individual participating companies, mentioned in the report.

About Intelligent Energy

Intelligent Energy is a clean power systems company, with a range of leading fuel cell and hydrogen generation technologies. The company is focused on the provision of cleaner power and low carbon technologies. Intelligent Energy partners with leading companies globally, in the transportation, oil and gas, aerospace, defence, distributed generation and portable power markets. Current partners and customers include Scottish & Southern Energy plc with whom the company has formed a joint venture to commercialise fuel cell combined heat and power (CHP) systems, and The Suzuki Motor Corporation. Intelligent Energy’s successes in recent years include the development of the world’s first hydrogen fuel cell motorbike and supplying the fuel cell system to Boeing which powered the world’s first manned fuel cell aircraft. The company also recently supplied Airbus with a multi-functional fuel cell auxiliary power unit (APU) aimed at on-board power and other loads in future commercial airliners.

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¹ The electricity power supply assumed in this report is based on the European Climate Foundation “Roadmap 2050”, which describes a pathway to decarbonise the EU’s power mix by 2050.