The US Department of Energy (DoE) has announced over $7m in funding for projects that bring cost-effective, advanced hydrogen and fuel cell technologies online faster.
This investment will be used for four projects in Georgia, Kansas, Pennsylvania and Tennessee to develop fuel cell-powered vehicles and backup power systems.
Of the four projects, two projects from Center for Transportation and the Environment and FedEx Express are from the automotive industry.
The DoE has invested $3m in a project conducted by the Center for Transportation and the Environment.
Other members in this project include The University of Texas's Center for Electromechanics, Electric Vehicles International, Hydrogenics USA and Valence Technology.
This project will develop a fuel cell hybrid electric walk-in delivery van with a 150 mile range per fueling.
It will retrofit 15 UPS delivery vans with fuel cell hybrid power trains and test these vehicles at distribution facilities across California. Other members in the project include Plug Power and Smith Electric Vehicles.
DoE has also invested $3m in another project from FedEx Express to develop a hydrogen fuel cell delivery truck with a range of up to 150 miles per fueling.
The project will also test 20 of these trucks at FedEx facilities in Tennessee and California.
