Through their investments, both Ballard and NEUMAN & ESSER have acquired minority stakes in the battery- and hydrogen-electric commercial vehicle specialist, which also sees Ballard enter into a development cooperation with Quantron to accelerate the market launch of fuel cell vehicles.

From its financing round, H2 View understands Quantron seeks to expand its ‘Quantron-as-a-Service’ (QaaS), which offers a 360-degree OEM-open ecosystem for its customers, as well as further develop its BEV and FCEVs with a focus on heavy-duty trucks.

Quantron has said the Hydrogen Alliance will provide customers with a 360-degree open platform that will include zero-emission hydrogen vehicles, as well as infrastructure for hydrogen production and refuelling.

In 2021, the Neuman and Esser Group (NEA) announced it was expanding its energy solutions business unit to extend into the hydrogen value chain, leveraging its know-how from compressor technology.

Read more: NEA Group extending energy solutions business unit into the hydrogen value chain

Ballard and Quantron revealed in 2021 that the companies were looking to bring several brand-new hydrogen fuel cell electric trucks to the market.

Read more: Ballard, Quantron to accelerate the adoption of hydrogen fuel cell trucks

In addition to the new stakeholders, Quantron has said, Deutsche Tamoil/HEM has joined the alliance as the first fuelling station provider and will help in exploring the feasibility of integrating hydrogen fuelling stations in its more than 400 HEM fuelling stations in Germany.

Michael Perschke, CEO of Quantron, said, “We are committed to providing our customers with the best possible solutions. The successfully concluded financing round gives us the necessary scope to further develop our Fuel Cell vehicle development, while at the same time consolidating our partner network required for this purpose. Positioned in this way we can optimally meet the needs of our customers, including range, payload and refuelling time.

“However, we don’t see ourself as a competitor to existing OEMs – but rather as an engineering and H2-fueling platform partner thus allowing the acceleration of hydrogen adoption as a source of energy for transportation with a focus on heavy duty and long distance transportation.”

In a joint comment, Stefanie and Alexander Peters, Managing Partners at NEUMAN & ESSER, added, “In addition to battery technology, for which we also offer solutions, the range of hydrogen applications is the second elementary component of the decarbonisation of the mobility sector. In order to meet the growing demand for hydrogen in this sector, through our strategic partnership we can combine infrastructure know-how with fuel cell vehicle technology in order to create an ecosystem. This gives the increasing number of customers access to a fully integrated mobility platform.”

Randy McEwen. CEO of Ballard, commented, “This is really one of the world’s first commercially available fuel cell trucks for the demanding 44-tonne heavy segment. And we know of course moving forward over the next years and decades that freight logistics will grow, and GHG-emissions will therefore grow unless we have market value zero emission solutions. So we are very excited to attack this market opportunity in a partnership with Quantron where we bring together a vehicle integration expert and a leading fuel cell supplier.”