Automotive Fuel Cell Cooperation (AFCC) was a

Vancouver Vancouver ( ) is a major city in western Canada, located in the Lower Mainland region of British Columbia. As the List of cities in British Columbia, most populous city in the province, the 2021 Canadian census recorded 662,248 people in the ...

British Columbia British Columbia (commonly abbreviated as BC) is the westernmost province of Canada, situated between the Pacific Ocean and the Rocky Mountains. It has a diverse geography, with rugged landscapes that include rocky coastlines, sandy beaches, ...

, Canada, based automotive

fuel cell A fuel cell is an electrochemical cell that converts the chemical energy of a fuel (often hydrogen) and an oxidizing agent (often oxygen) into electricity through a pair of redox reactions. Fuel cells are different from most batteries in requ ...

technology company. The company was formed on February 1, 2008 as a spin-off from its predecessor,

Ballard Power Systems Ballard Power Systems Inc. is a developer and manufacturer of proton exchange membrane (PEM) fuel cell products for markets such as heavy-duty motive (consisting of bus and tram applications), portable power, material handling as well as engine ...

to allow for further expansion of fuel cell technology.Automotive Tech
"The Automotive Fuel Cell Cooperation (AFCC)"
- technologynewsdaily.com - November 8, 2007 - Retrieved November 08, 2007
-

Daimler AG The Mercedes-Benz Group AG (previously named Daimler-Benz, DaimlerChrysler and Daimler) is a German multinational automotive corporation headquartered in Stuttgart, Baden-Württemberg, Germany. It is one of the world's leading car manufacture ...

- November 8, 2007 - Retrieved November 08, 2007 After the split, Ballard continued as a publicly traded company focusing on non-automotive applications (including buses), while AFCC became a privately held company of 150 employees, developing hydrogen fuel cell stacks for automobiles. AFCC's initial ownership split was Daimler (50.1%),

Ford Motor Company Ford Motor Company (commonly known as Ford) is an American multinational automobile manufacturer headquartered in Dearborn, Michigan, United States. It was founded by Henry Ford and incorporated on June 16, 1903. The company sells automobi ...

(30.0%), and Ballard itself (19.9%).

purchased the portion of AFCC owned by Ballard Power Systems in 2009 for $44.5M in gross proceeds, leaving it with 49.9% ownership, and Daimler AG (at present the

Mercedes-Benz Group The Mercedes-Benz Group AG (previously named Daimler-Benz, DaimlerChrysler and Daimler) is a German multinational automotive corporation headquartered in Stuttgart, Baden-Württemberg, Germany. It is one of the world's leading car manufacture ...

) as the major stakeholder with 50.1%. An AFCC stack was used in the

Mercedes-Benz F-Cell The F-Cell is a hydrogen fuel cell electric vehicle developed by Daimler AG. Two different versions are known - the previous version was based on the Mercedes-Benz A-Class, and the new model is based on the Mercedes-Benz B-Class. The first genera ...

vehicle in 2010. In 2013, AFCC's owners signed a three-way agreement with

Nissan Motor Company , trading as Nissan Motor Corporation and often shortened to Nissan, is a Japanese multinational automobile manufacturer headquartered in Nishi-ku, Yokohama, Japan. The company sells its vehicles under the Nissan, Infiniti, and Datsun brands, ...

to develop next-generation fuel cell technology that they hope will lead to the world's first affordable, mass-market fuel cell electric vehicles as early as 2017. The collaboration was to be jointly led by all three automakers with engineering work taking place at various locations around the world. AFCC was responsible for the research and product development of automotive fuel cell stacks for the collaboration. The company's first CEO was Dr. Andreas Truckenbrodt formerly the executive director for hybrid development for Daimler AG. He led AFCC for more than 6 years from company inception through February 2014. AFCC ended operations in June 2018, with much of the equipment was sold to Ballard Power Systems in July 2018.

References

External links

Official website
(archived) {{Authority control Mercedes-Benz Group joint ventures Ford Motor Company Corporate spin-offs Canadian companies disestablished in 2018