The remnants of a B.C.-based joint venture between global automakers will be sticking around on the West Coast.
Burnaby’s Ballard Power Systems (TSX: BLDP) announced July 4 it is acquiring “certain strategic assets” from Automotive Fuel Cell Cooperation Corporation (AFCC).
AFCC shuttered operations at the end of June after owners Ford Motor Company (NYSE: F) and Daimler AG decided to move their fuel-cell development in house to Michigan and Germany, respectively.
Ballard’s own headquarters is located at the same facility where AFCC was based. Ballard was originally part of the joint venture with Ford and Daimler before divesting from the arrangement in 2010.
The acquisition of assets includes testing equipment, prototype production equipment, and lab and quality inspection equipment spread across 11,000 square feet of floor space.
“With these valuable assets already in place and functioning within Ballard's existing Vancouver facilities, this transaction accelerates the expansion of our fuel cell testing, production and lab capacity at a lower cost, compared to acquiring new equipment,” Ballard CEO Randy MacEwen said in a statement.
Ballard did not disclose the price tag for the acquisition. The company did not immediately respond to questions from Business in Vancouver.
AFCC had been working with Ford and Daimler to develop the engine for a fuel-cell vehicle.
Production of the world’s first electric vehicle that also runs on hydrogen fuel, the Mercedes-Benz GLC F-Cell, begins later this year.
Joachim Blum, AFCC’s former CEO, told BIV last month the production signals a milestone for the commercialization of the technology, one of the reasons why Ford and Daimler are now moving their fuel-cell development in house.
Ballard, Ford, Daimler and Burnaby-based OverDrive Fuel Cell Engineering Inc. have all made job offers to some of the 200 experts that worked at AFCC.
