A number of very advanced prototypes exist.

230 kW fuel cell system “P4/P5” (XCellsis) is commercially available.

Several vehicles by DaimlerChrysler and propulsion systems with fuel cells:

• NECAR I, NECAR II:
• NEBUS: modified city bus O 405 N equipped with PEMFC

Fuel cell-driven NECAR 5 (New Electric Car) from DaimlerChrysler and the Premacy FC-EV (Fuel Cell Electric Vehicle) from Mazda obtained a road permit from the Japanese Ministry for Infrastructure and Transport in Feb. 01. The fuel used in the system is methanol.

DMFCs are still in the stage of laboratory applications.

Main overall development targets for future fuel cells are:

• reduce size and weight (and thus increase power density)
• increase reliability and life-time

R&D is done in the following fields:

• New types of fuel cells
• Improvement of methanol reformers and the related cleaning processes
• Hydrogen generation by reforming commonly available hydrocarbons (gasoline, diesel or renewables hydrocarbons like biomass). An efficient and economic reforming of hydrocarbons could open new market segments for fuel cell technology especially in the ground transportation segment.
• DMFC (Direct Methanol Fuel Cell): New developments also permit the direct conversion of liquid methanol inside the fuel cell itself (as opposed to a separate reformer). Depending on future research progress, a compact system could become available to be refuelled directly with liquid fuel.
• Improvements for the complete fuel cell system. The dimensions and power consumption of the compressor could be reduced by lowering the pressure on the cathode side of the fuel cell. The decreased efficiency of the fuel cell itself at reduced operating pressure could be more than compensated by significant savings of compressor energy. Thus, such a measure would raise overall system efficiency.

Manufacturing processes:

At present there are still several components of a fuel cell which can only be produced manually. Despite intensive R&D efforts, convenient technology for mass production is not available yet. This is one of the key cost drivers.