Basic Concepts
Fuel Cells applied to Electric Mobility. Part 1: Technology for Hydrogen Mobility

   Key dates in the history of hydrogen fuel cell vehicles.

   1839: “The Fuel Cell Effect”—Sir William Grove, a 19th-century English lawyer, philosopher, and chemist, developed one of the first fuel cells using his own funds and large quantities of platinum provided free of charge by Johnson Matthey.

   1889: Ludwig Mond and Carl Langer were the first to give the fuel cell its name and its current form: cells connected in series by bipolar plates. They were able to achieve currents of 2 to 2.5 A (approximately 3 mA/cm²) over a surface area of 700 cm² at a cell voltage of approximately 0.73 V and with a...