Abstract
To resolve global environmental problems, many automobile companies are making a great deal of effort to develop so-called green-cars. One of the solutions is an electric vehicle equipped with the PEMFC (Proton Exchange Membrane Fuel Cell) stack. However, the cost of the stack, at the moment, is still too high. This obstacle must be resolved for commercialized fuel cell cars. One of the reasons for high cost is a relatively large amount of Pt (platinum) in the membrane. In this paper, a method for reducing the Pt-loading is introduced. Furthermore, the durability of the stack will be important for a company to stay competitive in world markets (in the future). For this, the diagnosis of the stack must be conducted on-line. Some diagnosis methods as key technology are also introduced in this paper.