The FiveVB project will develop a new cell technology based on innovative materials such as high capacity anodes, high voltage cathodes and stable, safe and environmentally friendly electrolytes. Since main European industry partners representing the value chain from materials supplier to car manufacturer are involved, this program will support and enable the development of a strong and competitive European battery industry. The multidisciplinary project team will also assure not only early technology integration between materials, cells, batteries and application requirements, but also a subsequent industrialization of the developed technology. With an integrated trans-disciplinary cell development approach we will also realize an early feedback loop from battery and vehicle level to material suppliers and a feed-forward of relevant information to industrial scale cell production. Through an iterative and holistic approach two generations of cell chemistries (anode, cathode, binder and electrolyte) will be evaluated and optimized to improve electrochemical performance of active materials and related new cell technology in terms of energy density, lifetime, safety and costs. Furthermore, we will address early development and validation of test procedures for the reduction of development time from material to cell by e.g. accelerated test procedures. Among other objectives, in particular the lifetime and aging aspects will be addressed in depth in FiveVB, but also input for future European and International standardization will be provided. Thus, one major result of FiveVB is a hard case prismatic cell in PHEV1 format, developed according to automotive requirements and produced on a representative prototype facility.

GAIA has the overall aim of developing high power and high current density automotive MEAs well beyond the current state of the art up to TRL5. This project, encompassing OEMs, leading industrial and academic/research organisation/research institute partners with long expertise in fuel cell science and technology, and building on best developments from the FCHJU, will not only provide significantly higher performance MEAs but will also ensure the designs satisfy the cost, durability and operational targets set by the call. Accordingly, the specific objectives of the project are to: - Develop world-leading components (electrocatalysts, membranes, gas diffusion and microporous layers) and improve the interfaces between them to minimise resistances; - Realise the potential of these components in next generation MEAs showing a step-change in performance that will largely surpass the state of the art by delivering a beginning of life power density of 1.8 W/cm2 at 0.6 V; - Validate the MEA performance and durability in full size cell short stacks, with durability tests of 1000 h with extrapolation to 6,000 h; - Provide a cost assessment study that demonstrates that the MEAs can achieve the cost target of 6 €/kW for an annual production rate of 1 million square metres.