During “the international hydrogen energy forum(HYFORUM 2004)”,on May 25,2004,Ministry of Science &Technology (MoST) and Daimler Chrysler signed the contract .Daimler Chrysler will supply three fuel cell Citaro buses for GEF/UNDP china demonstration for FCB commercialization project.

　　The sign of the contract makes China the first successfully biding country and the first demonstrating country among the five countries that are supported by GEF/UNDP to demonstrate the fuel cell bus. About in September, 2005,Beijing citizen will have a chance to take fuel cell bus .

　　With more and more attention paid to the energy and environmental problem, hydrogen and fuel cell technology are getting more and more attractive. Major western countries consider hydrogen and fuel cell as strategic high technology, and established pertinent research, development and demonstration projects. Hydrogen-fueled vehicle has no environmental impact with water the only byproduct, higher efficiency than conventional vehicles. With the background of more and more serious environmental pollutions, the “zero-emission” vehicle shows great promise for the future.

　　The MoST paid much attention to the development of fuel cell vehicle technology. In the “ninth” and “tenth” five-year plans, fuel cell vehicle and pertinent technologies were categorized into the technological development plan. In 2001, the MoST began to launch the “the target-oriented project on electric vehicle”, which is aimed to develop the fuel cell vehicle technology. As one of 12 national target-oriented projects, the project got the government’s financial support up to 900 million RMB. Up to now, fuel cell car and bus have been developed, and the accumulated operation range has covered more than 2000 kilometers.

　　DaimlerChrysler is a pioneer in fuel cell vehicle development, Last year DaimlerChrysler produced 60 hydrogen fuel cell vehicles based on the Mercedes-Benz A-Class, which are running on the streets everyday with customers in the USA, Europe, Japan and Singapore. In ten European cities, 30 fuel cell buses are already in operation in regular route service. In March, 2004 the Dodge Sprinter powered by a fuel cell was in operation in the US with a delivery service.

　　The “GEF/UNDP China demonstration for fuel cell bus commercialization project” and “the target-oriented project on electric vehicle” is complementary and promotional to each other. The development project on power system integration for fuel cell vehicle in “the target-oriented project on electric vehicle” are all arranged in the locations of Beijing and Shanghai, respectively. The project got support from Beijing and Shanghai in terms of financial funding and policy bias. The situation provides a fine technical forum for development of fuel cell vehicle technology.

　　Beijing and Shanghai are the two largest the most representative cities in China. To achieve the goal of “Green Olympic” for the 2008 Olympic Games held in Beijing. Beijing has strived to strengthen the environment protection, and at the same time enhance the construction of infrastructure. Shanghai city is striving for decreasing the vehicle emission and improving the air quality. The demonstrating operation of fuel cell bus at the two cities with different regional and environmental characteristics will help to boost the application of fuel cell vehicles in larger scope throughout the nation.