Chinese automaker SAIC Group will terminate funding for 10 projects, including a fuel cell vehicle forward-looking technology development project, according to a recent announcement by the company.

These are mainly for the development of 300-type fuel cell systems and the development of complete fuel cell vehicles based on mass-produced passenger car platforms, the announcement said.

As of April 30, 2021, the project has used RMB 148.7 million ($23 million) of the proceeds.

SAIC has preliminarily established the technical scheme of 300-type fuel cell reactor and system, carried out the forward-looking technology development of high-power fuel cell, and completed the engineering development and bench performance verification of the first round of 300-type reactor and system prototype.

In view of the fact that SAIC's fuel cell vehicle forward-looking technology R&D project no longer fits the environment and trend of accelerated development of the fuel cell industry, and that SAIC's e-commerce platform Chexiang.com project has changed its platform development investment model, the company decided to terminate the above projects.

The above-mentioned projects savings total RMB 1.05 billion, including the interest generated by the corresponding project funds. They will be permanently replenished as working capital to support SAIC's production, operation and development.

SAIC revealed that all primary components of PROME M3, a new generation fuel cell reactor, have been produced locally and have been installed on SAIC MAXUS EUNIQ7 for mass market.

SAIC says its new zero thermal runaway battery system to go into production by year-end