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Manufacturer joins hydrogen fuel cell project

Renault has taken a big step into the hydrogen fuel market in partnership with a leader in hydrogen fuel cell systems.Groupe Renault and Plug Power are set to work together to produce a hydrogen-powered light commercial vehicle

An agreement signed between the two companies will see them launch the joint venture by the middle of 2021.  The partnership is aiming for 30 per cent share of the fuel cell-powered light commercial vehicle (LCV) market in Europe

Based in France, the partnership will deliver state-of-the-art innovation and manufacturing capabilities for hydrogen fuel cell systems and their integration in vehicles

The partnership provides a unique proposition offering complete fuel cell vehicle solutions with hydrogen fuel, refueling infrastructures and services to customers

This strategic project supports the uptake of more sustainable mobility in Europe with the adoption of clean energy solutions, positioning the Groupe as a key player in hydrogen fuel cell innovation

Groupe Renault and Plug Power Inc. – a global leader in fuel cell systems and hydrogen-related services – have signed a Memorandum Of Understanding (MOU) to launch a joint venture with the aim of becoming the leader in hydrogen fuel cell technology for light commercial vehicles (LCVs).

Based in France, the partnership will launch in the middle of 2021, positioning the two companies at the forefront of research and development, transformation, manufacturing and sale of fuel cell-powered vehicles and hydrogen turn-key solutions. The joint venture will serve the growing market for fuel cell LCVs, taxis and commercial passenger vehicles. 

Bringing the strengths of both organisations together, the partnership will combine Groupe Renault’s pioneering experience in new and sustainable energies as well as its strong position in electric light commercial vehicles with Plug Power’s20 years of experience in fuel cell technologies and hydrogen solutions. 

A global leader in hydrogen ecosystem solutions, Plug Power has deployed more than 40,000 fuel cell systems, designed and built 110 refueling stations that dispense more than 40 tonnes of hydrogen daily, and is a technology leader in green hydrogen solutions via electrolysis. 

The partnership intends to offer unique, comprehensive products and solutions to the LCV market. Groupe Renault and Plug Power will begin sales of fuel cell LCVs in Europe starting in 2021 with pilot fleet deployments.

Groupe Renault and Plug Power will provide thestandalone joint venture with the required resources to achieve its objectives.

The finalisation of this partnership is pending on the conditions normally applicable to this kind of operation, among which the presentation to employee representative bodies in accordance with applicable regulations and the potential clearance from the relevant competition authorities and should be completed by the end of the first half of 2021.

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It is the most extreme crash test ever executed by Volvo Cars, and a crucial one. Extrication specialists often use cars crashed at the Volvo Cars Safety Centre to hone their life-saving skills.

To allow rescue services to prepare for any possible crash scenario and to simulate the forces that erupt in the most extreme crashes, beyond what can be simulated with ordinary crash testing, Volvo Cars recently took equally extreme measures. For the first time, it dropped several new Volvos multiple times from a crane, from a height of 30 metres.

This approach helped create enough damage to adequately simulate the damage found in the most extreme crash scenarios: think of single-car accidents at very high speed, accidents whereby a car hits a truck at high speed, or accidents whereby a car takes a severe hit from the side.

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In such situations, people inside the car are likely to be in a critical condition. Therefore, the priority is to get people out of the car and to a hospital as quickly as possible, using hydraulic rescue tools known in the industry as the ‘jaws of life’. Extrication specialists often talk about the golden hour: they need to release and get a patient to the hospital within one hour after the accident has happened.

All findings from the crashes and the resulting extrication work will be collected in an extensive research report. This report will be made available free of use to rescue workers elsewhere, allowing them to benefit from the findings and further develop their life-saving capabilities.

Usually, rescue workers get their training vehicles from scrapyards. But these cars are often up to two decades old. And in terms of steel strength, safety cage construction and overall durability, there is a vast difference between modern cars and those built 15 to 20 years ago. And new Volvos are made of some of the hardest steel found in modern cars.

This makes it crucial for rescue workers to constantly update their familiarity with newer car models and review their processes in order to develop new extrication techniques. In other words, these training sessions can mean the difference between life and death. So at the request of the rescue services, Volvo Cars decided to step things up a notch.

“Normally we only crash cars in the laboratory, but this was the first time we dropped them from a crane,” says Håkan Gustafson. “We knew we would see extreme deformations after the test, and we did this to give the rescue team a real challenge to work with.”

A total of 10 Volvos, of different models, were dropped from the crane several times. Before the drop, Volvo Cars safety engineers made exact calculations about how much pressure and force each car needed to be exposed to in order to reach the desired level of damage.