Ballard Power Systems
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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, Keith Prater, and Paul Howard, under the name Ballard Research Inc. to conduct research and development on high-energy lithium batteries. 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.<ref>Template:Cite web</ref>
Ballard went public in 1993 on the Toronto Stock Exchange (TSE), and in 1995 was listed on the NASDAQ. Ballard Power Systems opened a fuel cell manufacturing facility in 2000 in Burnaby, B.C.<ref>Template:Cite web</ref>
Automotive fuel cell cooperations
On February 1, 2008, Ballard spun out Automotive Fuel Cell Cooperation (AFCC)<ref>Template:Cite web</ref> to allow for further expansion of fuel cell technology.<ref name=TND-2007-11-08>Automotive Tech: "The Automotive Fuel Cell Cooperation (AFCC)" Template:Webarchive - technologynewsdaily.com - November 8, 2007 - Retrieved November 08, 2007</ref><ref name=DM-AG-BN-2007-11-08>"Daimler AG to become majority stake holder in new ”Automotive Fuel Cell Cooperation”" - Daimler AG - November 8, 2007 - Retrieved November 08, 2007</ref> 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 AG (50.1%), Ford Motor Company (30.0%), and Ballard itself (19.9%).<ref>Template:Cite web</ref>
In 2018, Ballard signed a contract with Weichai Power for a strategic partnership. Weichai acquired for US $163 million (19.9%) of Ballard's shares.<ref>Template:Cite web</ref> As part of this collaboration, Ballard and Weichai intend to supply the Chinese market with fuel cell systems for trucks, busses, and forklifts.<ref>Template:Cite web</ref>
In cooperation with German car manufacturer Audi, Ballard is part of a development partnership for automotive fuel cells, which will run at least until 2022.<ref>Template:Cite web</ref> Ballard delivers fuel cells to bus manufacturers, e.g. Van Hool (Belgium), New Flyer (Canada) and Solaris (Poland).<ref>Template:Cite web</ref><ref>Template:Cite web</ref>
Other activity areas
Besides road vehicles, Ballard delivers fuel cells also for trains,<ref>Template:Cite web</ref> mining trucks,<ref>Template:Cite web</ref> marine applications,<ref>Template:Cite web</ref><ref>Template:Cite web</ref><ref>Template:Cite web</ref><ref>Template:Cite web</ref> and backup power systems for critical infrastructures such as radio towers.<ref>Template:Cite web</ref><ref>Template:Cite web</ref> Furthermore, a fuel cell system for application in drones is under development.<ref>Template:Cite web</ref>
Achievements
Ballard has:
- supplied vehicles with fuel cells traveling more than 200 million kilometers in total to date 2024<ref>Template:Cite web</ref>
- access to 2,000 patents/applicationsTemplate:Citation needed