Project start for the innovation project “Go4City” (G4C). ELO Mobility and the Fraunhofer Institute for Transport and Infrastructure Systems IVI are jointly developing a new generation of revolutionary city buses with hydrogen drive technology.

The use of hydrogen enables emission-free mobility and is considered to be an essential element for the attainment of climate goals of the German federal government as central element of the energy transition towards clean energy. The Berlin start-up ELO Mobility specializes in the development of high-performance city buses with innovative, electric drives based on intelligent energy management systems. These new types of Go4City buses will consume significantly less hydrogen, so that the optimization potential in terms of range and operating costs will be significantly improved compared to currently available vehicle technologies. Germany is positioning itself in the international race for hydrogen technologies in the commercial vehicle sector and is supporting the comprehensive switch to hydrogen in the context of a climate-friendly transport infrastructure.

The Go4City project is funded by the Federal Ministry of Transport and Digital Infrastructure. The official project sponsor is Forschungszentrum Jülich. The program is coordinated by the National Organization of Hydrogen and Fuel Cell

Technology NOW GmbH, that has accompanied and supported the project from the initial phase.

ELO Mobility expects to gain significant knowledge and collect valuable data by the Company’s module-based construction approach and the use of sensors and actuators in the planned two bus types (the 12-meter and 18-meter articulated bus version) to optimize both single vehicles and fleet operations. The essential economic and strategic project goals will be achieved by implementing an adaptive low-wear fuel cell operating strategy with the creation of an intelligent operative fuel cell to battery power split system, as well as an optimized dimensioning concept of the components and other energy control systems.

ELO Mobility’s project partner Fraunhofer IVI will play a key role in this context and has vast experience of more than 20 years in this field. Fraunhofer IVI creates - among other tech innovations - solutions for intelligent planning, coordination and the control of mobility systems. The Institute is furthermore a specialist in digital platform solutions and Big Data in the area of public transport.

A notable innovation of the Go4City project is the use of exchangeable and also reprocessable fuel cells, which is accompanied by a significant cost reduction. This aspect is crucial for the technology acceptance of the market. The Go4City project partner company HyMove B.V. from the Netherlands has been operating buses with innovative and reliable fuel cells successfully in daily service for over five years and will ensure optimal project results with the aim to develop further products based on the experience and the scientific knowledge of this project.

The Go4City partners are planning to produce a new generation of high- performance hydrogen buses from the year 2022 on, with optimal adaptation to specific OEM use cases.

ELO Mobility is a start-up from Berlin working on innovative, emission-free mobility solutions specialized in hydrogen fuel cell drives and fleet management systems in the field of commercial vehicles. In addition to self-build vehicles, ELO Mobility offers retrofit solutions and converts existing vehicles with combustion engines into the latest generation of climate-friendly hydrogen buses. ELO Mobility sees itself as a solution provider and enabler for emission-free fleets. Further innovation targets are the optimization of fleet use through decentralized supply systems for green hydrogen, as well as the development of hydrogen drones for long-distance usage. ELO Mobility’s Lower Saxony branch operates since 2020. Under the ViridisH2 Südniedersachsen project funded by the BMBF, the company is developing a concept in cooperation with the University of Göttingen and the Südniedersachsenstiftung to establish a green hydrogen value chain for the mobility sector.

ELO Mobility and Fraunhofer IVI are Developing New Types of Hydrogen Fuel Cell Powered City Buses