DR Powertrain is a Sino-German JV headquartered in Jiaxing, Zhejiang Province, China. The company focuses on fuel cell vehicles, engineering and special vehicle powertrain systems, as well as hydrogen energy storage systems. Now the status of serial production of 5 – 120 kW fuel cell systems and core balance-of-plant (BOP) components has been achieved, and the products have already passed the inspection certification by Chinese authoritative testing organisation. DR Powertrain has completed the development and matching of several fuel cell electric vehicle (FCEV) types with Chinese national and international first-class automobile enterprises. Meanwhile, the technical indicators of the products are in the Chinese leading level. The agreement has now been reached to provide the fuel cell systems in FCEVs at this level with technologically excellent stacks.
The EKPO stack family around the NM5 and NM12 types meets the customer's exacting standards in respect of durable, compact fuel cell stack design alongside high power density of up to 6.2 kW/l in the cell block. In addition to the comparatively low weight, the nearly 600 cells of the NM12-Twin, for example, achieve a high power spectrum of up to 205 kW in pressure mode. Furthermore, the stack design offers the best possible basis when it comes to scaling and modularisation, thus allowing the end customer to design its usage application with maximum flexibility and efficiency.
Through its parent company, ElringKlinger, EKPO has been actively pursuing fuel cell research and development for approximately 20 years. The compact stacks are based on proton-exchange membrane (PEM) technology and convert chemical into electrical energy using hydrogen and oxygen. EKPO offers stacks in various configurations for integration into customer systems. Stacks with peripheral components and system functionalities integrated into the media module are also available as an option. These features enable considerable simplification and cost reduction with regard to the fuel cell system. Drawing on the system solutions of its parent company, Plastic Omnium, EKPO can cover the entire value chain of a hydrogen-based fuel cell drive. EKPO has an initial production capacity of up to 10 000 stacks per year, which will be gradually expanded in line with its order intake.
