Dominic Patzelt New Hydrogen Project Manager at e-troFit

Denkendorf, 07/29/2021 – Dominic Patzelt has been working as Hydrogen Project Manager at e-troFit GmbH since July 2021. An important part of his area of responsibility is the planning and implementation of specific projects that, in cooperation with technology partners and suppliers, adapt fuel cell technology to buses and trucks in various forms of application. With this newly created position, e-troFit, as a technology leader for electric drive systems in the commercial vehicle sector, is once again underlining its openness to technology and consistently continuing its hydrogen product development.

After training as a foundry pattern maker and automotive mechatronics technician, Dominic Patzelt initially gained extensive experience in the field of vehicle maintenance. He then worked as a test mechatronics technician and later, after completing a part-time mechanical engineering degree, as a project and development engineer in vehicle development. Early in his career, Dominic Patzelt became enthusiastic about CO2-free mobility solutions and thus future-oriented alternatives to conventional drive technologies. Since 2014, his focus has been clearly on hydrogen as an energy carrier and fuel cell technology. Before joining e-troFit, the 38-year-old most recently worked at Bertrandt GmbH in Munich. There, as a proven hydrogen expert, he played a key role in the development and operation of a fleet of fuel cell vehicles.

“e-troFit is the first digital OEM to develop and distribute high-quality electrification solutions for used and new commercial vehicles. The retrofitting or second-life idea inspires me with its unbeatable sustainability. And buses and trucks will also be the first movers in the hydrogen mobility segment,” says Dominic Patzelt. “I strongly believe that hydrogen will make a valuable contribution to decarbonization and the reduction of greenhouse gas emissions, especially in the mobility sector. That’s why I’m very pleased to be able to contribute my knowledge and experience to the development of innovative electric drive systems at e-troFit and thus actively shape the emission-free mobility of the future.”

H2 Product Development as a Strategic Cornerstone

“Fuel cells will play an important role at e-troFit for the development of specific solutions in the commercial vehicle sector in the future,” says Dr. Matthias Kerler, Chief Technology Officer at e-troFit GmbH, explaining the strategy in the area of research and product development. “Our plan is to have the first production-ready buses and trucks based on fuel cell technology on the road as early as 2024. One focus of our development is battery-powered electric vehicles with fuel cell range extenders. With this solution, the drive power and large parts of the range are provided by the battery, with all its advantages in terms of energy efficiency and total cost of ownership. A fully variable scaling between the power of the installed fuel cell stacks and installed battery capacity is possible depending on the application scenario involved in order to increase the range using hydrogen as required.”

For longer ranges in coaches and heavy-duty transport with available hydrogen infrastructure, e-troFit intends to offer a hybrid powertrain primarily based on hydrogen as an energy carrier in the future. The battery is used here only to support high drive power, for operation of the fuel cell at optimum efficiency and for the recuperation of braking energy

About e-troFit

e-troFit – electrifying transportation! The privately financed German start-up with its headquarters in Denkendorf and offices in Garching near Munich employs around 75 people. e-troFit is also present at four additional sales and development locations in Austria, Italy, Spain and Bulgaria. e-troFit is the first digital OEM worldwide (without its own storage and manufacturing facilities) to offer innovative solutions for the electrification (retrofitting) of used and new commercial vehicles such as trucks deployed in distribution transport, buses in local public transport (LPT) as well as municipal vehicles. e-troFit is certified to ISO 9001 and as such is the only supplier of retrofit solutions to guarantee operational safety in accordance with international automotive industry standards such as functional safety ISO 26262. A network of international partners guarantees service and availability across Europe. With its holistic approach to telematics, charging infrastructure, fleet management and autonomous driving, the company designs quickly implementable and cost-efficient solution packages for sustainable mobility transformation and a “second life” for diesel commercial vehicles. They effectively support the implementation of the CO2 reduction targets in accordance with the European Green Deal Agreement and the Clean Vehicles Directive, which will come into force in 2021.

e-troFit was awarded the German Mobility Prize (2018) and the Austrian VCÖ Mobility Prize (2019), as well as being voted one of the top 50 start-ups in Europe in the field of mobility (2020, EUSP). Additional information: www.e-trofit.com/en/