Daimler establishes new company focused on fuel cells

Daimler Truck AG has established Daimler Truck Fuel Cell GmbH & Co. KG with the organizational and legal framework for bringing together all of the group’s fuel cell activities.

Daimler Truck AG concluded a preliminary, non-binding agreement with Volvo Group in April of this year to establish a new joint venture for the development, production and commercialization of fuel cell systems for heavy-duty commercial vehicles and other applications such as stationary use. Volvo Group will acquire 50% of the company for this purpose. Daimler Truck AG and Volvo Group plan to start series production of heavy-duty fuel cell commercial vehicles for demanding and heavy long-distance haulage in the second half of the decade.

“The fuel cell is a crucial CO2-neutral solution for trucks in heavy, long-distance transport. We and our future joint venture partner, Volvo Group, are convinced of this,” said Martin Daum, chairman and member of the board of management of Daimler Truck AG. “We are determined to jointly tackle the development and series production of fuel cells and are now taking major steps with all the necessary preparations for the planned joint venture.

“The establishment of Daimler Truck Fuel Cell GmbH & Co. KG is a very special milestone for our company because our new subsidiary is to be the immediate predecessor organization of the joint venture. In it, we will now bring together the great expertise and enormous wealth of experience from several decades of development work on fuel cells at Daimler – and combine it with the right know-how in connection with trucks.”

“I am very pleased that with Dr. Andreas Gorbach and Dr. Christian Mohrdieck, we have been able to gain two very experienced Daimler colleagues for the management of Daimler Truck Fuel Cell GmbH & Co. KG. The two of them are characterized both by profound expertise in the field of conventional and alternative drive systems and fuel cells, and by the right pioneering spirit to successfully build up the new entity and transfer it to the planned joint venture," continued Daum.