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KEYOU

emissionfree technology

“Experience and expertise are the hallmarks of the KEYOU team”

They have known each other for a long time and share a common vision: engineers Thomas Korn, Markus Schneider and Alvaro Sousa have 15 years of professional experience between them, 10 of them in research and development of alternative drives at BMW. Today, they combine their talents and expertise in the high-tech company KEYOU, which they founded together at the end of 2015 with the aim of making tomorrow’s mobility sustainable and environmentally compatible. The fourth KEYOU founder, Ivo Pimentel, has taken a different path after five successful years and has since left the company. With KEYOU, the three founders are pursuing a common goal: affordable and clean mobility based on the sustainable and energy-rich fuel of the future – hydrogen.

Thomas Korn

Thomas Korn studied engineering at the Munich University of Applied Sciences, with a particular focus on technical physics. He began his career in the late 1990s as a design engineer in the R&D department at BMW, working mostly on alternative drives and fuels. During this period, he was heavily involved in developing two generations of hydrogen vehicles. From 2001, he led the BMW research department for fuel cell technology, before relocating to California in 2006, where he was the project manager responsible for the BMW North America H2 vehicle and filling station programme. He then moved to Alset and took up a role as Vice-President for Technology and Innovation; this was also where he gathered first experiences on how to run a start-up. Finally, in 2015 Korn established his own start-up business: KEYOU. As CEO and Founder, this is where he is now turning his dream of developing sustainable and clean hydrogen engines into a reality.

Alvaro Sousa

After studying automotive engineering at the University of Porto, Alvaro Sousa began his career in the R&D department at BMW in Munich. There he spent the first 4 years researching the development of BMW’s first pre-production vehicles with hydrogen combustion engines, storage systems and fuel cell vehicles. In 2007, he moved to California, where he was responsible for customer service and technical service for BMW’s hydrogen fleet there. Three years later, he returned to Portugal and worked as a lecturer at the University of Porto. Between 2011 and 2014, Alvaro Sousa worked for the start-up Alset, first as an external consultant and later as Vice-President for Fuels & Infrastructure. There he met Thomas Korn again. Alvaro, co-founder of KEYOU, is now Chief Technology Officer (CTO) and responsible for the development of the hydrogen engine and its components.

Markus Schneider

Markus Schneider is a trained automotive mechanic and, in 2001, graduated top of his class at the University of Applied Science in Munich in automotive engineering. After graduating, he began his engineering career at BMW. There he was responsible, among other things, for several years for the development of the H2 infrastructure and several mobile H2 filling stations in California. At the end of the 2010s, he moved to Alset in Austria as Vice President Operations to build up a successful development infrastructure and supplier network. From 2016 to the end of 2018, Markus was responsible for the development and start of production of the first high-voltage storage system developed and manufactured in China as team and project leader at BMW Brilliance in Shenyang. Back in Germany, he took over the setup and operation of several assembly lines for e-mobility at BMW as a production and process specialist. Today, Markus is responsible for processes, infrastructure and resources as Chief Operations Officer.

The Munich-based high-tech company, develops innovative hydrogen technologies, special components and combustion processes that can be deployed to transform conventional engines into zero-emission engines. The technology is not specific to a particular engine or manufacturer and can be used in both new and existing vehicles. The current focus is on the commercial vehicle sector.