Fuel cell range extender made in Germany

Aachen-based e.Go Mobile is progressing their product palette and team up with fuel cell specialist Proton Motor Fuel. Their joint venture called e.Go REx shall come to life before the year’s end with the purpose of developing a fuel cell range extender. First for e.Go’s upcoming mini electric bus and for other OEMs as well comes 2021.

The guiding principle of the e.Go REx joint venture is scalability. Both e.Go Mobile and Proton Motor Fuel want the fuel cell range extender ready for large scale production. Moreover the e.Go REx system will be scalable from 22 kW to 30 kW in order to cater for various electric vehicles and use cases.

Proton’s HyRange technology builds the basis and the e.Go Mover will be the first application. The mini electric bus has been developed by the start-up and has since found ZF as a partner for commercialisation. Their joint venture e.Go Moove will begin producing the EV from 2019 and e.Go and ZF expect five-digit volumes. Thus e.Go Mobile projects to equip up to 15,000 e.Go Mover a year with their fuel cell range extender system from 2021 before offering it to third parties as well.

Such plans require industrialisation to be in-built and e.Go Mobile CEO Günther Schuh explains that the fuel cell only serves to charge the battery on demand rather than driving the motor, so that retrofitting becomes much easier. Technically speaking, it turns the e-Go Mover into a plug-in hybrid vehicle of sorts. Moreover, both companies consider the supply of components for fuel cell stacks secured and want to start production and distribution of their range extender as soon as possible.

Meanwhile e.Go Mobile is working to get their first electric car, the e.Go Life out to consumers but face delays due to tough double-checks at suppliers (we reported).

e-go-mobile.com (in German)