PROSPECTS FOR THE APPLICATION OF FUEL-CELLS IN ELECTRIC VEHICLES

For a hybrid vehicle the use pattern has large effect on the vehicle design. If the vehicle is to be used extensively on the motorway then a continuous high power is required. For the case of a fuel cell battery hybrid vehicle this would require a large fuel cell (> 30 kW) to meet the sustained high power demand. The current high materials and fabrication cost of most fuel cells prohibits the commercial development of such a system. Consequently if fuel cell vehicles are to enter a 'clean car' market, earlier rather than later, alternative configurations must be sought and compromises in terms of performance are inevitable.