Ballard Power Systems Inc. is a developer and manufacturer of proton exchange membrane (PEM)

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

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 Geophysics () is a subject of natural science concerned with the physical processes and properties of Earth and its surrounding space environment, and the use of quantitative methods for their analysis. Geophysicists conduct investigations acros ...

Geoffrey Ballard, Keith Prater, and Paul Howard, 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 ** Lithium–air battery ** Lithium–iron disulfide battery ** Lithium–sulfur battery ** Nickel–lithium battery ** Rechargeable l ...

. 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; ) is a stock exchange located in Toronto, Ontario, Canada. It is the List of stock exchanges, 10th largest exchange in the world and the third largest in North America based on market capitalization. Based in th ...

(TSE), and in 1995 was listed on the

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. 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 Automotive Fuel Cell Cooperation (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 Mercedes-Benz Group AG (formerly Daimler-Benz, DaimlerChrysler, and Daimler) is a German multinational automotive company headquartered in Stuttgart, Baden-Württemberg, Germany. It is one of the world's leading car manufacturers. Daimler-B ...

- 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 corporation, multinational automobile manufacturer headquartered in Dearborn, Michigan, United States. It was founded by Henry Ford and incorporated on June 16, 1903. T ...

(30.0%), and Ballard itself (19.9%). In 2018, Ballard signed a contract with

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

for a strategic partnership. Weichai acquired for US$163 million19.9 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 German(s) may refer to: * Germany, the country of the Germans and German things **Germania (Roman era) * Germans, citizens of Germany, people of German ancestry, or native speakers of the German language ** For citizenship in Germany, see also Ge ...

car manufacturer

Audi Audi AG () is a German automotive manufacturer of luxury vehicles headquartered in Ingolstadt, Bavaria, Germany. A subsidiary of the Volkswagen Group, Audi produces vehicles in nine production facilities worldwide. The origins of the compa ...

, 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.

Van Hool Van Hool NV () was a Belgium, Belgian coachbuilder and manufacturer of buses, Coach (bus), coaches, trolleybuses, and Semi-trailer, trailers. Most of the buses and coaches were built entirely by Van Hool, with engines and axles sourced from C ...

(

Belgium Belgium, officially the Kingdom of Belgium, is a country in Northwestern Europe. Situated in a coastal lowland region known as the Low Countries, it is bordered by the Netherlands to the north, Germany to the east, Luxembourg to the southeas ...

New Flyer New Flyer is a Canadian multinational Bus manufacturing, bus manufacturer, specializing in the production of transit buses. New Flyer is owned by the NFI Group, a holding company for several bus manufacturers. New Flyer has several manufacturing ...

(Canada) and

Solaris Solaris is the Latin word for sun. It may refer to: Arts and entertainment Literature, television and film * ''Solaris'' (novel), a 1961 science fiction novel by Stanisław Lem ** ''Solaris'' (1968 film), directed by Boris Nirenburg ** ''Sol ...

(

Poland Poland, officially the Republic of Poland, is a country in Central Europe. It extends from the Baltic Sea in the north to the Sudetes and Carpathian Mountains in the south, bordered by Lithuania and Russia to the northeast, Belarus and Ukrai ...

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 200 million kilometers in total to date 2024 * 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 1993 initial public offerings Companies based in Burnaby Fuel cell manufacturers