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 engineering services. Ballard has designed and shipped over 400 MW of fuel cell products to date.

History

Ballard was founded in 1979 by geophysicist Geoffrey Ballard under the name Ballard Research Inc. to conduct research and development on high-energy

lithium batteries Lithium battery may refer to: * Lithium metal battery, a non-rechargeable battery with lithium as an anode ** Rechargeable lithium metal battery, a rechargeable counterpart to the lithium metal battery * Lithium-ion battery, a rechargeable batte ...

. Since committing to the development of PEM fuel cell technology in 1989, Ballard has delivered PEM fuel cell products worldwide to a number of leading product manufacturers. Ballard went public in 1993 on the

Toronto Stock Exchange The Toronto Stock Exchange (TSX; french: Bourse de Toronto) is a stock exchange located in Toronto, Ontario, Canada. It is the 10th largest exchange in the world and the third largest in North America based on market capitalization. Based in the ...

(TSE), and in 1995 was listed on the NASDAQ. Ballard Power Systems opened a fuel cell manufacturing facility in 2000 in Burnaby, B.C.

Automotive fuel cell cooperations

On February 1, 2008, Ballard

spun out ''Spun Out'' is a Canadian television sitcom created by Jeff Biederman, Brent Piaskoski and Brian K. Roberts for CTV. It premiered on March 6, 2014 and ended on October 3, 2015, with a total of 26 episodes over the course of 2 seasons. Premise T ...

Automotive Fuel Cell Cooperation Automotive Fuel Cell Cooperation (AFCC) was a Vancouver, British Columbia, Canada, based automotive fuel cell technology company. The company was formed on February 1, 2008 as a spin-off from its predecessor, Ballard Power Systems to allow for fu ...

(AFCC) 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 manufactu ...

- 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

(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%). In 2018, Ballard signed a contract with

Weichai Power Weichai Power Co., Ltd is a developer and manufacturer of diesel engines with headquarters in Weifang, Shandong in the People's Republic of China. It also manufactures forklifts and non-diesel engine automotive parts. History Weichai Power was ...

for a strategic partnership. Weichai acquired for 163 million USD 19.9 percent of Ballard's shares. As part of this collaboration, Ballard and Weichai intend to supply the Chinese market with fuel cell systems for trucks, busses, and forklifts. In cooperation with German car manufacturer

Audi Audi AG () is a German automotive manufacturer of luxury vehicles headquartered in Ingolstadt, Bavaria, Germany. As a subsidiary of its parent company, the Volkswagen Group, Audi produces vehicles in nine production facilities worldwide. Th ...

, Ballard is part of a development partnership for automotive fuel cells, which will run at least until 2022. Ballard delivers fuel cells to bus manufacturers, e.g.

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(

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(Canada) and Solaris (

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Other activity areas

Besides road vehicles, Ballard delivers fuel cells also for trains, mining trucks, marine applications, and backup power systems for critical infrastructures such as radio towers. Furthermore, a fuel cell system for application in drones is under development.

Achievements

Ballard has: * supplied vehicles with fuel cells traveling more than 30 million kilometers in total to date 2021 * access to 2,000 patents/applications

References

https://www.bctechnology.com/news/2021/3/22/Fuel-Cell-Electric-Vehicles-Powered-by-Ballard-Have-Now-Driven-Over-75-Million-Kilometers--Enough-to-Circle-the-Globe-1870-Times.cfm {{authority control Companies listed on the Toronto Stock Exchange Companies based in Burnaby Fuel cell manufacturers