Dongfeng Motor said its independently developed 400kW hydrogen fuel cell stack has passed a new Chinese national-standard 10,000-hour durability verification, becoming the first domestically produced metal bipolar plate fuel cell stack to do so. The milestone was unveiled at a company conference in Wuhan on May 20 and detailed in a Shanghai Metals Market report published May 26.
3.29% Degradation Over 10,000 Hours
The product, branded "Dongfeng Hydrogen Core," recorded an average single-cell voltage degradation rate of just 3.29% across the full 10,000-hour test cycle. The Chinese automaker said the stack earned the authoritative "HyTA Durability Star" certification, an independent industry verification, and is the first high-power metal bipolar plate stack in the country to receive the label.
Dongfeng credited its in-house "2-3-3" durability framework, a stack of materials science, environmental-stress, and life-cycle controls. The technical package includes anti-corrosion conductive dual-coating, membrane-electrode stress control, integrated vibration-resistant packaging, and an intelligent thermal-and-water management loop driven by an AI lifespan-prediction model.
Designed for 49-Tonne Hydrogen Trucks
The 400kW stack is custom-engineered for 49-tonne heavy-duty hydrogen tractors. Dongfeng said the system can cold-start at -40°C, supports a designed equipment lifespan of more than 30,000 hours, and was named a "Hubei Province 61020" landmark product. The company also unveiled its T1 Commercial Vehicle New Energy Platform at the same event, claiming hydrogen consumption as low as 7 kilograms per 100 kilometers, a 15-minute refueling window and a single-charge range of up to 1,700 kilometers.
Real-World Mileage Crosses 1 Million Kilometers
Dongfeng's fleet of hydrogen demonstration vehicles has now accumulated more than 1 million kilometers of operating mileage. Forty-nine-tonne hydrogen heavy trucks running the Wuhan-Chengdu trunk route have logged maximum single-vehicle mileage above 60,000 kilometers, with availability sustained above 95%, the company said. The T1 platform also earned European DEKRA Functional Safety C-level certification for commercial vehicles.
A Push to Catch Up in Hydrogen Mobility
The announcement comes as Chinese and Korean players race to commercialize hydrogen-powered commercial transport. Hyundai's HTWO Guangzhou subsidiary was recently recognized as a leading hydrogen player in the Chinese city, while South Korea broke ground on a 9.13 MW hydrogen fuel cell power plant in Gyeongju. Broader clean-energy roadmaps continue to expand, with Korea Southern Power planning 11.2 GW of renewables by 2040. Autonomy is also accelerating in heavy trucking, including Torc Robotics' new physical-AI partnership with Quebec's Mila.
What's Next
Dongfeng's three-stack lineup now spans 70kW, 150kW and 400kW platforms, covering hydrogen demand from 20kW to 400kW across passenger and commercial vehicles. The company said it will keep investing in core materials, system integration and refueling-network partnerships to push fuel-cell trucks from demonstration to large-scale commercial operations under its "Sky-Clean Zero-Carbon" strategy linked to its 2030 plan.
Reporting based on coverage from Shanghai Metals Market (SMM) and Hydrogen Central.