AVL is the world's largest independent company for development, simulation and testing technology of powertrains (hybrid, combustion engines, transmission, electric drive, batteries, fuel cells and software) for passenger cars, trucks and large engines. AVL has about 3,000 employees in Graz (over 1,200 graduated engineers) and a worldwide network of 45 representations and affiliates resulting in total 8500 employees worldwide. The turnover in 2015 is in the range of 1.3 billion €.

Competences
Long term know how and competence in the field of SOFC APU system integration, SOFC stack testing; expert on test programme development; contribution of AVL Load Matrix Method for elaboration of accelerated test procedures.
Leader of a several international & national Austrian SOFC projects since 2002.
Fully automated Hardware-In-the-Loop SOFC test bench and benches for component and durability testing; close co-operation with University of Technology Graz in the field of hot vibration testing of SOFC stacks.

Plansee, a division of the Plansee Group, manufactures since 1921 refractory metals and composites from metal powders. The Plansee Group increased consolidated sales in the fiscal year 2014/15 (last day 28 February 2015) to 1.26 billion EUR and employed on a worldwide basis, within all associated companies 11,800 staff.
Plansee is involved in the process right from the start: the Plansee Group divisions GTP and Molymet process ore concentrates from mines into metal oxides, which Plansee then reduces to pure metal powder. The metal powder is then compacted, sintered and processed in various additional forming steps to produce highly resistant materials.
Plansee operates in the following markets: the coating industry, energy transmission and distribution, the lighting industry, thermal processes, ion implantation, the electronics industry, tungsten-heavy metal alloys, medical technology and sapphire production.
For more than 15 years, Plansee has been well known for its strong contribution to the development and commercialization of SOFC technology worldwide. Based on its outstanding experience in powder metallurgy (P/M), Plansee’s activities in the field of component and stack development for the SOFC go back to the 1990s. This was when the first powder metallurgical SOFC interconnects has been developed, a product which has been industrialized later then for an US customer base. Since then the core team of Plansees so-called growth option SOFC has been rising to more than 30 people combined with continuous investments in dedicated and sophisticated equipment for SOFC development and pilot production of related products.
In regard to this particular project, since more than 10 years Plansee has sustainable pursued, developed and established specific P/M technologies for metal supported cells (MSC), such as substrate fabrication, coating, sintering and thin film electrolyte deposition. Based on that P/M component core know how, Plansee started additionally the development of a MSC based SOFC stack concept for mobile applications.

Forschungszentrum Jülich GmbH (JÜLICH) is one of the leading research institutions in Germany with approx. 5 400 employees. Energy technology is one of the main research topics with an involvement of approx. 350 person-years. Protection of the environment and of natural resources, economy and safety are among the prime research goals.

Nissan Technical Centre Europe (NTCE); the R&D facility for Nissan Motor Manufacturing UK Ltd. was established in 1988 with the responsibility of localizing parts from Japan to support the reduction of manufacturing costs in Europe. Over the last 27 years, NTCE has increased capability and is now responsible for total upper body development, as well as Chassis, Electrical and Powertrain Engineering. Project Management is a key strength of NTCE and is required for all aspects of development process but is most critical at the application end. Cost, Quality and Timing management tools are well established. The Advance Engineering group is an emerging group within NTCE, but has already established itself as a high value added pillar; delivering new, exciting, innovative vehicle and technology concepts to Nissan Motor Co., Ltd NML.

Nissan UK will receive additional support from experts employed by Nissan Japan, who will act as a reviewer of the tasks assigned to Nissan UK in the project. No costs are charged in relation to this activity.