Nissan Begins New Fuel-Cell Vehicle Winter Testing

Nissan X-Trails towards fuel-cell winter testing

Alternative fuels and fuel-technologies are the new promised land for car manufacturers. The economic crisis seems to have stepped up research and development endeavors towards achieving fuel efficient low or even zero emission engines.

Last year in August Nissan Motor announced it had developed a new fuel cell stack with double the power density of the previous generation stack. A few months later Nissan began onboard testing and now it started cold-weather testing at its Hokkaido Proving Ground.

The new fuel cell stack achieves a 35% cost reduction mainly due to half the use of platinum, a key material used in the production of fuel cell stacks. Compared to the previous generation, the new generation stack’s power output is increased 1.4 times from 90kW to 130kW, which can power Nissan's larger vehicles.

The double sized power density is achieved through improved conductivity of the electrolyte layer within the Membrane Electrode Assembly (MEA). The cell structure of the new fuel-cell is more densely packed thanks to the replacement of the carbon separator with a new thin metal separator.

The separator breaks down the hydrogen, oxygen and cooling water needed for the chemical reaction. A specific coating applied to the separator helps improve conductivity and prevents chemical corrosion.

This new fuel cell was developed as part of the Japanese manufacturer's Nissan Green Program 2010. The program tries to come up with new technologies, products and services aimed to scale down CO2 emissions and expanded recycling of resources.

Nissan achieved last summer a Nürburgring Nordschleife lap record using a X-Trail fuel-cell technology. Even if it had no one to compete with, the X-Trail did the Ring in 11 minutes and 58 seconds. As you might have guessed, CO2 emission amounted to zero.