The hydrogen car of the future is currently being built in Bavaria

Roland Gumpert is a pioneer in hydrogen technology - support for
mass production is needed

Emission-free, long-range and refueled quickly - that's what the car of the future should look like. Politics, science and industry want the combustion engine gone by the end of 2030 and rely onalternative drives such as the hydrogen fuel cell. Ingolstadt engineer Roland Gumpert has longsince realized what sounds like the future in the current discussion. The first series model witha hydrogen / electricity producing methanol fuel cell was presented to the world in May - the Roland Gumpert Nathalie "First Edition". However, Roland Gumpert feels left alone by politics and economy.

Roland Gumpert, the CEO, engineer and chief developer of the sports car brand of the same
name, revolutionized electromobility with his vehicle: "Our super sports car is the world's first production vehicle with a methanol fuel cell. It is independent of charging stations or special hydrogen filling stations and has a range of 820 km."

The vehicle has a 15kW methanol fuel cell that generates hydrogen from methanol and thus
generates electricity. The energy capacity of the overall system consisting of methanol power cell with 65l tank and buffer battery is 190 kWh. The vehicle is refueled like conventional cars in three minutes with the simplest infrastructure. The acceleration from 0-100 is 2.5 seconds and the top speed is 300 km / h thanks to two synchronized 2-speed gearboxes.

Bavaria's Economics Minister Hubert Aiwanger (Freie Wähler party) recently said that Bavaria should become the leading location for hydrogen technology. For this purpose, the state government founded the Hydrogen Center in Nuremberg in September 2019 and established the hydrogen alliance with over 30 partners from business, science and associations.

In Ingolstadt, not far from the Bavarian capital of Munich, this vision is already a reality. Roland Gumpert explains why he chose a methanol fuel cell instead of a classic hydrogen fuel cell: "Our technology offers long ranges with short refueling times, a simple infrastructure, is CO2-neutral and completely harmless thanks to the use of green methanol. With the methanol fuel cell, we have managed to develop a safe energy concept from hydrogen. We generate electricity without risk and in an environmentally neutral way - and even less risky than any petrol-powered car. Liquid hydrogen is not harmless due to the high pressure of up to 800 bar and is therefore out of the question in terms of production and handling for environmental reasons."

Roland Gumpert demonstrates not only a technology that is environmentally friendly and harmless, but also a concept that can be used in many other models and also in commercial vehicles. "Our goal is that all vehicles run with a methanol fuel cell in the future," says Roland Gumpert. "With our partner Blue World Technologies in Denmark, we also have the opportunity to mass produce the fuel cells," he adds.

In order to realize this mass production, support from the industry is needed. "We feel left alone by politics and economy," he says. "We are looking for powerful partners with whom we can spread this new, groundbreaking technology. We can also imagine participation from the federal or state governments."