Staged shutdown of a fuel cell-based drive system

The present invention relates to a fuel cell-based drive system (1), particularly for a vehicle, comprising at least one fuel cell stack (2), an electric machine (3), peripheral components (4) and an electrical system. It is characterized in that a trained to evaluate / categorizing detected in the drive system malfunction control unit (6) is provided. Furthermore, the present invention also relates to a method for operating such a drive system in various Dagradierungsstufen upon the occurrence of one or more errors.