At its Stuttgart-Feuerbach location, Bosch has started volume production of its fuel-cell power module with the Nikola Corporation as the pilot customer for its hydrogen fuel cell electric truck.

Dr Stefan Hartung, the chairman of the board of management of Robert Bosch GmbH, said: “Bosch knows its way around hydrogen, and Bosch is growing with hydrogen.” The company is currently developing technology for its production and application and is investing nearly €2.5bn euros in hydrogen technology to 2026. By 2030 Bosch plans to generate sales of roughly €5bn with hydrogen technology.

Production of the fuel-cell power modules is not only starting in Feuerbach, but also in Chongqing, China, and Bosch is also planning to manufacture stacks for mobile applications in its US plant in Anderson, South Carolina. Worldwide, the company expects that, by 2030, one in five new trucks weighing six tons or more will feature a fuel-cell powertrain.

Hartung sees hydrogen as a geopolitical lever and believes that EU must do much more to create a counterweight to the rapid pace of developments in other regions of the world, such as the US. More specifically, the Bosch chairman has four demands of German and EU policymakers: “First, we have to step up the pace of hydrogen production in the EU. Second, global supply chains have to be set up, and third, hydrogen has to be used in all sectors of the economy.” As a fourth point, he stressed the importance of quickly setting up infrastructure for distributing hydrogen.

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