On the occasion of Autocar Expo in Lyon, the Green Corp Konnection (GCK) group announces the signing of a multi-year fuel cell supply agreement with Symbio, one of the world leaders in the development and manufacture of this type of low emission solutions.
An essential event for the promotion of mobility and tourism, the Autocar Expo fair unsurprisingly gives pride of place to clean energies, in particular hydrogen, which represents a key means with regard to the required performance: range, recharging time, charges useful, especially for heavy public transport vehicles.
On this occasion, the GCK group presents its heavy vehicle retrofit activity, an essential solution to accelerate the decarbonization of a fleet of nearly 70,000 coaches currently in circulation in France. In mobile demonstration outside the show, the Iveco Crossway of the Auvergne-Rhône-Alpes Region is none other than the first rolling coach in France retrofitted to hydrogen meeting standard constraints of use and operation.
The success, in just a few months, of this conversion by GCK Mobility, a subsidiary of GCK, was made possible in particular by the massive use of French components, including the fuel cell supplied by Symbio, a joint venture between Michelin and Faurecia. The coupled association of two StackPack, a pre-validated and pre-integrated hydrogen solution, allows the system to develop a maximum power of 150 kW powered by 34 kg of hydrogen at 700 bar. They provide the electricity needed for a 320 kW electric motor thanks to which the coach retains its original performance and characteristics (400 km range, 19 tonne payload).
This StackPack Symbio hydrogen system, capable of meeting all the power and durability needs for zero-emission mobility, will be used by GCK Mobility for the conversion of other vehicles whose series production will begin in autumn 2023 after an intense campaign of tests and obtaining the necessary approvals.
For Eric Boudot, Managing Director of GCK: “The fuel cell is obviously an essential element in our retrofit activity. We were able to find in Symbio a listening and efficient partner allowing us to present two coaches converted to hydrogen this week. We are absolutely delighted with this agreement with an actor not only French but also from Auvergne-Rhônalpine and its long-term scope to support our future series production. »
For Philippe Rosier, CEO of Symbio: “We are delighted with this agreement with GCK, a pioneer in hydrogen mobility in our Auvergne-Rhône-Alpes region. A first retrofit agreement which demonstrates, once again, that our solutions can adapt and respond to all mobility, including the most demanding, such as buses or coaches. Thus, the 75Kw power of our fuel cell makes it possible to move to clean mobility without losing performance.
The first coaches are already on the roads, we hope that they will be followed by many others, serving zero-emission public transport. »
