The alliance will jointly develop on-board gasoline fuel processing technology and hardware for PEM fuel cell systems for vehicles. Fuel Cell Buses Proliferating. Daimler Benz unveiled a fuel cell bus May 26 that will run on stored hydrogen and have a range of 250km. The bus will be tested in-use beginning this June in Stuttgart. Multi-vehicle pilot fleets of fuel cell buses will be deployed by Ballard in Chicago and in Vancouver, B.C. this year.
Pilot projects are also under negotiation in California and other states.
The U.S. Department of Transportation is also developing at least two more fuel cell buses. In March, Nissan contracted to purchase Ballard fuel cells for research and testing of fuel cell vehicles. . . Toyota unveiled a pre-production fuel cell vehicle in October 1996. . . Mechanical Technology Inc. The new company will develop and market PEM fuel cells, and create a fuel cell system capable of providing electricity for an entire household. The fuel cells would run on natural gas and be about the size of a central air conditioning unit.