1 4 e-mobility
Much of the current focus of
the automotive industry is on zero-impact
emission mobility. AVL is
currently working on a variety of
projects, all designed to decarbon-ize
and eliminate pollutant emis-sions
across the transport sector.
One such project is FCVGen1.0,
a collaboration between AVL and
Ford Britain, to create a fuel cell
powered electric light commer-cial
vehicle. Undertaken as part
of the Advanced Route to Market
Demonstrator (ARMD) competi-tion,
the efforts were part-funded
by the UK’s Advanced Propulsion
Centre (APC), a not-for-profit or-ganization
helping to accelerate the
transition to a net-zero automotive
industry through funding, support
and insights.
The idea behind FCVGen1.0 was
to develop a fully functional fu-el
cell-powered Ford Transit light
commercial vehicle, along with
a validated digital twin of the fu-el
cell system (FCS) and vehicle,
in under 12 months. A prototype
Transit BEV donor van provided
by Ford, was converted to a fuel
cell demonstrator vehicle at AVL’s
Engineering Centre in Basildon.
Led by the UK, the project drew
on AVL’s group experience in hy-drogen
propulsion and fuel cell
technology development and inte-gration
and Ford’s knowledge on
vehicle controls, vehicle calibration
development and energy manage-ment
systems. A sharing of work
packages between two companies
with a common idea.
Making the Fuel Cell
Vision a Reality
AVL Powertrain UK teams up with Ford Britain to build a light
commercial H2 Fuel Cell electric demonstrator vehicle
THE APPLICATION OF
EXPERTISE
The AVL team was pulled togeth-er
from several different disciplines
including component and system
design, control system develop-ment
and functional safety, simu-lation
and system integration, as
well as physical build and com-missioning.
The team drew on the
expertise of the AVL Group to de-sign,
specify and integrate the fuel
cell Balance of Plant (BoP) and the
high-pressure H2 storage system.
This included supplier selection
and component procurement. The
fuel system and performance sim-ulation
was carried out using AVL
CRUISE™ M. A rapid prototype
of the fuel cell stack and hydro-gen
tank control systems, includ-ing
an infrared communications
IT WAS A GREAT PROJECT DELIVERED
BY AN EXTRAORDINARY TEAM.”
Dr Matthias Wellers
Managing Director, AVL Powertrain UK Limited
“
Pictured, left to right:
Jon Caine, Paul Havelock,
Bernadette Longridge,
Matthias Wellers