"I am very happy to accept this award as a representative from my research team. We pursued fundamental research and with the very promising results were able to markedly influence the path for fuel cell technology", research boss Leohold said during the award ceremony.

In the last eight years, research experts from Volkswagen have developed a new type of membrane as the core element of the fuel cell. This makes it possible to construct a smaller, more efficient and better value for money system overall. The main modifications are: new high temperature membrane on phosophorous basis and likewise newly designed eletrodes. This enables fuel cells to be operated over a long period of time at temperatures of 120 degrees Celcius - without any power loss, without humidification and with no irreparable damage to the cells. The special feature is that the high temperature membrane uses phosphorus acid instead of water for energy generation.

The first vehicle prototypes that use this high temperature technology could be around by about 2010. Series production of this future technology is not expected before 2020.