Joint patent with Volkswagen — public record DE102020119021B3

This entry is not a press article but the public record itself: patent DE102020119021B3 — “Fuel cell stack, fuel cell device and fuel cell vehicle” — filed in July 2020, granted in 2021, held jointly by Volkswagen and kraftwerk. Anyone can read it in full at the German Patent and Trade Mark Office (DPMA) or via Google Patents; the register entry is linked from this page.

The cell platform behind it is the aSOFC: a 38-mm ceramic micro-tube weighing about one gram, whose nanocrystalline electrolyte converts fuel directly into electricity at 450–600 °C — around 100 Wh per cell, without platinum, lithium or other critical raw materials. About 500,000 of these micro-tubes work together in a 1-megawatt system.

A granted patent is the most verifiable form of the Volkswagen story: it documents the development cooperation in a public register rather than in a press release. It stands alongside five years of proof-of-concept work with the Volkswagen Group — including a test vehicle covering 2,000 km on a single tank — and is one of 33 granted patents protecting materials, stack design and system integration. kraftwerk names the cooperation and the patent, nothing more.

This record is why the press entries on this site can link to their originals: the story is checkable at the source. On kraftwerkgroup.com, the technology page shows how the cell works and explains every figure, and the datasheets are available on request, the vehicle catalogue lists the 38 models upgraded by kraftwerk, and the FAQ answers what readers ask most.