Fuel Cell Developer Completes Sale of Subsidiary to Car Makers

Sep 7, 2005 3:18 PM

Ballard Power Systems reports that the previously announced sale of its German subsidiary, Ballard Power Systems AG, to DaimlerChrysler AG and Ford Motor Co. has closed as planned. Ballard Power Systems specializes in the design, development and manufacture of zero-emission proton exchange membrane (PEM) fuel cells. At its Burnaby headquarters, the company focuses on developing fuel cell stacks, the key component of a fuel cell system. The subsidiary in Nabern, Germany, (which until now employed about 200 people) takes the fuel cell stack and develops it into complete fuel cell systems.

With the sale of this subsidiary, Ballard will maintain a much smaller work force—less than 10 employees—in Nabern, to service its customers, manage European sales and business development activities and coordinate its development activities with DaimlerChrysler and Ford.

"At Ballard, we have one vision, one goal—to develop fuel cell power as a practical alternative to internal combustion automotive engines. We will succeed through our relentless commitment to technology leadership. Today, we are better positioned than ever to achieve that goal,” said Dennis Campbell, Ballard’s president and CEO. “We are stronger financially, with the recovery of approximately $20 million in expenses and an annual reduction in cash consumption of $25 million. We are stronger strategically, with a sharpened focus on our core competencyӣfuel cell design, development and manufacture. And we will continue to benefit from the strength of our Fuel Cell Alliance with DaimlerChrysler and Ford.”

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