A couple of weeks ago I talked about how Daimler was starting production on 200 Mercedes B-Class F-Cell vehicles. Now, leading hydrogen fuel cell manufacturer for the automotive industry Ballard has announced they have struck a deal with Daimler to supply fuel cells for cars and buses for the automaker.
Ballard has announced they will sell their FCvelocity fuel cell to Daimler for approximately $24 million over 18 months with distribution in the 2010 and 2011 timeframe. This money may help the struggling company to stay afloat.
What will also help Ballard is that they are selling a 19.9-percent stake in the Automotive Fuel Cell Co-operation (AFCC) to an unnamed financial institution. AFCC is a joint venture with Ballard, Ford and Daimler.
Ballard has backed away from fuel cells for the automotive industry in recent years to concentrate on their stationary fuel cell business. But, it’s good to see that they are managing to stay solvent and keep involved in manufacturing hydrogen fuel cells to help the carmakers progress to the next level of production vehicles.