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Sumitomo Corporation together with Sumitomo Corporation of Americas (collectively referred to as "SC Group") announced their Strategic Collaboration Agreement with US Hybrid to support their desire to grow its fuel cell production business through the expansion of fuel cell stack production capacity for commercial production. SC Group will play an integral role in the project by coordinating the discussions with OEM's through their extensive business network.
US Hybrid, together with their Fuel Cell division, US FuelCell, has more than 26 years of experience in fuel cell balance of plant components and vehicle development and deployment. US FuelCell develops and manufactures new technologies and transportation products.
"Fuel cell vehicles offer high energy efficiency, no tailpipe emissions, and full vehicle functionality, including the normal driving range, fast fueling and a potential path to sustainable transportation. We highly respect Japanese automakers as a leader in commercializing fuel cell passenger vehicles, and we consider our new freeze capable, fuel cell powertrains to be a game-changer for the equally important market segments of medium and heavy duty trucks for freight movement and buses for public transit," said Abas Goodarzi, President of US Hybrid. "We are very pleased to be working with Sumitomo, as a global strategic business development partner, in order to commercialize our fuel cell engine and integrated vehicle technologies that have proven reliability for both on-road and off-road transportation."
SC Group is equally excited to be initiating this partnership. "By bridging US Hybrid's excellent technology and Sumitomo's deep relationships with OEMs, we are excited to contribute to this project and realize the potential for using clean hydrogen energy in commercial transportation," said Duke Kato, Senior Vice President at Sumitomo Corporation of Americas. "We view this partnership as an investment into the way mass transportation performs in the future, mitigating the negative impact on the environment."
SC Group has studied Hydrogen as a future clean energy source, including how fuel cell technologies can be applied to cars. In Japan the development of fuel cell technology has already been incorporated into passenger cars like the Toyota Mirai and Honda Clarity.
Through this research, SC Group has recognized the need to develop this clean energy technology for greater infrastructure needs, specifically applying it to public transportation. Reaching this agreement with US Hybrid will be an important next step in developing this technology, whose fuel cell application to public transit had been evaluated as one of the closest to the commercialization through demonstration projects in California, Hawaii, Ohio and Michigan. US Hybrid also marketed the first freeze-capable integrated fuel cell engine for medium and heavy-duty vehicles at the Hannover Messe Hydrogen and Fuel Cells and Batteries Fair this past April.
(Photo Credit: US Hybrid)