West Sussex-based Ceres Power — a developer of low-cost solid-oxide fuel cells — and Weichai Power — a Chinese automobile and equipment OEM — finalised a long-term collaboration deal at the end of last year.

This covers creating a manufacturing joint venture (JV) in China, licensing the transfer of key technology to the JV and joint development work.

The JV will target the rapidly growing market opportunity for fuel cells in China.

Phil Caldwell, Ceres Power CEO (www.cerespower.com), said: “This is a major strategic milestone for Ceres.

Establishing a manufacturing capability in China with a partner as strong as Weichai will enable our SteelCell range extender technology to benefit from the kind of economies of scale and significantly lower costs that we have seen in the solar and battery industries.

“This agreement represents a scale-changing opportunity for Ceres.”

Tan Xuguang, chairman and CEO of Weichai, said: “We see significant commercial potential for using SteelCell to help us develop cutting-edge fuel cell power systems.

“We look forward to trialling the new range extender and also to developing new products for the transportation and stationary power generation markets in China.”

The low-emission public transport market in China is being driven by the Chinese government, which is stimulating the sector through subsidies and zero-emission zones, designed to reduce air pollution, carbon emissions and road noise.

In addition to these benefits and increasing the operational range of electric buses, the Ceres range extender has the advantage that it can run on widely available fuels such as CNG and does not rely on the roll-out of hydrogen
infrastructure.