Hydrogenics Corp. (Toronto, Canada), a designer and manufacturer of fuel cell technology, announced that it has been contracted by the Ministry for Transport Energy and State Planning of the State North-Rhine-Westphalia (NRW), Germany, to develop a fully operational, electric hybrid "midi-bus." The propulsion system of the 17 ft European-manufactured, bus platform will be based on Hydrogenics' fuel cell hybrid design that integrates HyPM® power module technology.
Also under the terms of the contract, Hydrogenics will supply full-scale testing and select demonstrations in NRW. The contract is a cost-share arrangement in which NRW will fund 50% of the project cost up to €566,000 (approximately US$735,000). The project and its assessment will take place over a one-year period. Demonstrations are expected to be underway by the middle of next year.
