Automotive News Canada - August 2017 - 19

* AUGUST 2017

Magna is shopping around
its hydrogen fuel-cell and
battery-electric-hybrid
platform. The company has
no plans to produce
it independently.

Groundbreaking Magna hybrid fuses
battery and hydrogen-fuel-cell tech
Scalable design allows
varying sizes of fuel-cell
stacks and battery packs
to strike the right balance
of range, fuel cost and
refueling/charging times
BY STEVE MERTL

VA N C O U V E R C O R R E S P O N D E N T

MAGNA INTERNATIONAL'S NEW
hydrogen fuel-cell and battery electric
hybrid platform is right on trend with the
direction fuel-cell vehicles are headed,
one expert says.
Renewable-energy consultant Geoff
Budd told Automotive News Canada that
other automakers and suppliers increasingly see the fuel cell/battery combination as a way to balance range requirements with speedy refueling.
Battery and fuel-cell stacks can be
sized according to a vehicle's mission,
said Budd, whose past work includes
fuel-cell development with Ballard Power
Systems and Daimler-Benz. Budd sits on
the board of the Canadian Hydrogen and
Fuel Cell Association.
Magna Steyr Engineering, a unit of
the Canada-based auto-parts giant, created a range-extender fuel-cell/battery
hybrid (FCREEV) at its facility in Graz,
Austria. Its partners were fuel-cell developer Proton Motor of Germany, two
Austria-based research institutes and the
Austrian government, which provided
funding.
The vehicle, converted from a conventional range-extender hybrid minivan,
can operate in different modes to optimize the system, depending on its state of
charge and on the kind of driving.

LOWER SIZE AND WEIGHT
Combining two sources of electric
power allows the design to reduce the size
and weight of the battery and the fuel-cell

stack, offering both rapid battery recharging and hydrogen refueling capabilities.
"We see from this approach that in
terms of costs and performance we have
key benefits for the end user," Guido
Bartlok, Magna Steyr's hydrogen systems
manager, told the Hydrogen Fuel Cell
Conference in Vancouver in June.
Magna has developed fuel-cell components before, he said, but this was the
first time it has integrated such a system
into a vehicle.
The fuel-cell range extender vehicle
addresses one main criticism of battery
EVs as long-range zero-emission vehicles:
the lengthy recharge time.
Other impediments remain: Both
recharging and hydrogen refuelling outlets are still sparse, and the vehicles
themselves still cost more than their conventional equivalents to own.

INDUSTRY TREND
Budd said Magna's concept is part of
an industry trend away from pure fuelcell propulsion to some combination of
fuel-cell and battery power.
Ballard, for example, is in a joint venture with a company in China to produce range-extender fuel-cell buses for its
domestic market.
The French company Symbio FCell is

A key benefit of Magna's range-extender
fuel-cell/battery hybrid (FCREEV) is to
provide auxilliary electricity in place of
downtime to recharge.
( P H O T O : M A G N A I N T E R N AT I O N A L )

( P H O T O S : M A G N A I N T E R N AT I O N A L )

testing a Renault Kangoo zero-emission
plug-in hybrid commercial van with a
range of more than 300 kilometres.
Meanwhile, Daimler plans this year to
roll out a Mercedes-Benz GLC fuel-cell/
battery plug-in hybrid utility vehicle with
a promised range of about 500 kilometres,
claiming it will be the first such vehicle
in regular production.
Budd says that other automotive-component suppliers such as Robert Bosch
and Siemens are working on fuel-cell/battery hybrid systems.

ADJUSTABLE VERSATILITY
Hybrids have important advantages over pure fuel-cell platforms, he said.
The size of the fuel-cell stack, hydrogen storage tank and battery can be varied according to how the vehicle will
be used. A vehicle with a lot of downtime that can be plugged in overnight
will need a smaller fuel-cell for extended range. Those in constant service will
benefit from a larger fuel-cell unit and
quick refueling, versus charging.
"It really is an issue of what do you
need the vehicle to do," said Budd.
Batteries also offer efficiency benefits, such as the ability to recover energy
through regenerative braking.
"It really doesn't pay," to use a fuel cell
alone, Budd said.
Bartlok told the conference that
besides allowing for faster inter-city trips,
Magna's FCREEV could be used in other
roles where long range and fast refueling
are important, such as for taxi and shuttle
services.
The company has no plans to produce the FCREEV independently, he told
Automotive News Canada.
"We are just a contract manufacturer,"
he said. "Our OEMs are our customers,
so we'll offer this to [show] our customers that we have the capability and the
knowledge to do it."
Magna Steyr produces about 200,000
vehicles a year at its Steyr assembly
plant, making it the world's biggest
unbranded car manufacturer, Bartlok
said. - ANC

ABOUT THE
MAGNA STEYR EV
SYSTEM COMPONENTS
FUEL CELL: Protonexchange membrane
(PEM) fuel cell with
25-kilowatt nominal
power rating with 51 per
cent efficiency using
ambient un-humidified
air. Produced by Proton
Motor of Germany.

HYDROGEN STORAGE:
Tank with three-kilogram capacity, mechanical pressure regulator. Produced by Magna
Steyr Fuel Systems.
BATTERY: 16 kilowatthour.
DRIVETRAIN: Front and
rear electric motors providing front- and allwheel-drive capability.
PERFORMANCE:
350-kilometre range (70
kilometre battery only),
100 km/h cruising speed,
130 km/h maximum
speed, Zero to 100 km/h
in 11 seconds.
DRIVE MODES: Allwheel-drive (maximum
traction, reduced efficiency), Eco (maximum
range, lower acceleration,
reduced HVAC effectiveness).
ENERGY MODES:
Battery only (fuel cell
off, limited range, lower
fuel cost), SOC (stateof-charge, activates fuel
cell for improved performance, reduced fuel
economy). Default mode
automatically uses battery and fuel cell in combination as required by
driver.

Table of Contents for the Digital Edition of Automotive News Canada - August 2017