Haguenau, June 6, 2024. INNOPLATE, a 50/50 joint venture of Schaeffler and Symbio, celebrated today the inauguration of its new production site for fuel cell bipolar plates (BPP) in Haguenau, France. Bipolar plates are a strategic component for Fuel Cell technology and Innoplate repre-sents a compelling industrial combination leveraging the technological & industrial strengths of its founding companies. With an initial current production capacity of 4 million bipolar plates, Innoplate is expected to reach 50 million annually by 2030, thus, strongly contributing to the ramp-up of hydrogen mobility in Europe.
Industrializing the next generation of bipolar plates supporting Hydrogen-powered zero-emission mobility.
Schaeffler and Symbio have effectively joined forces at INNOPLATE to mass produce the next genera-tions of metallic BPPs for fuel cells and support Hydrogen-clean mobility emergence. INNOPLATE aims at accelerating the production of next generation BPPs for the entire proton exchange membrane (PEM) fuel cell market, thus enhancing performance, capacity, and cost competitiveness for its cus-tomers.
Schaeffler brings its industrial excellence and OEM expertise in areas such as steel processing and coating technology, and Symbio its highly integrated know-how in Fuel Cell design and production. Innoplate production has started in the first quarter of the year and is already equipping Symbio fuel cell systems.
Contributing to key European industries and competencies.
Located in the French city of Haguenau, close to German border, the Innoplate plant is to contribute to strengthening the European Hydrogen industry and supply chain, that is set to play a key role in decar-bonizing the economy and mobility. With the start-of-operations in the Innoplate plant, it is the first time that bipolar plates, a key component of Hydrogen Fuel Cells, are mass-produced on the European con-tinent.
The Innoplate plant project is supported by the France 2030 program and is intended to play a positive role in the local employer pool, creating 120 jobs by 2030. The site, which is located in close proximity to the Schaeffler plant in Haguenau, was built according to highest sustainability standards and ensures net zero-emission operations.
Innoplate inauguration was honored by 150 guests that followed the invitation of Klaus Rosenfeld, CEO Schaeffler AG, Philippe Rosier, CEO of Symbio, and Innoplate Managing Directors Alain Haag and Cédric Handwerk to the inauguration event.
In their joint speech, Alain Haag and Cédric Handwerk, Managing Directors of Innoplate, spoke about the challenges they have mastered together with their teams in a very short timeframe.
The Innoplate plant project is supported by the France 2030
