1. The basics

Key dates in the history of hydrogen fuel cell vehicles.

1839: The "fuel cell effect" Sir William Grove, a 19th-century English barrister, philosopher and chemist, developed one of the first fuel cells, using his own money and large quantities of platinum kindly supplied by Johnson Matthey.

1889, Ludwig Mond and Carl Langer were the first to give the fuel cell its name and present form: cells connected in series by bipolar plates. They were able to achieve currents of 2 to 2.5 A (approx. 3 mA/cm ² ) for a surface area of 700 cm ² at a cell voltage of around 0.73 V and a total platinum loading of 1 g platinum black (i.e. 1.43 mg platinum per cm ^2...