Nimbus’ Journey

Nimbus’ experience positions it to develop the most durable, powerful, and cost-effective fuel cell the heavy-duty market has ever seen. Its founders have spent over 50 years continually improving PEM fuel cells for heavy-duty applications.

Nimbus’s founders, Mike & Matt, began their journey together developing fuel cell systems for United Technologies Fuel Cell unit. Their culminating project at UTC broke records with its 31,000-hour real-world runtime on an AC Transit municipal bus (read the report here!), exceeding the Department of Energy and Department of Transit’s ultimate target of 25,000 hours.  Though impressive, the system needed to be smaller, lighter, more efficient, and cost-effective.

In 2013, Mike & Matt formed Nimbus Power Systems to continue the development of heavy-duty fuel cells. Nimbus’ first project, “Dragonfly,” sought to address its predecessor’s deficiencies through a proprietary cell design. The results were astounding. The team was able to maintain record-breaking durability with exceptional performance throughout the unit’s life. Even with these results, Nimbus’ mission was far from over. The unit needed to be scalable at high volumes, a goal only achieved through years of cost-reduction engineering.

Nimbus has since combined cell durability and system performance improvements with improved manufacturability for targeted cost reduction. The result is today’s NIMBUS200, a system specifically designed to replace diesel engines. It’s durable, it’s powerful, it’s cost-effective, and it’s emission-free. It’s rethinking heavy duty.