Ballard Seeks Chinese Investment

21 September 2005

Bloomberg. Ballard Power Systems, the biggest maker of automotive fuel cells, is seeking investment from China as it tries to break into the China market.

The company, partially owned by DaimlerChrysler and Ford, on 17 Sep hosted Chinese President Hu Jintao. Ballard and China have discussed hydrogen fuel cell technology for more than a year, and Ballard fuel cells are in three DaimlerChrysler Citaro fuel cell buses going into testing in Beijing. (Earlier post.)

Ballard has not been profitable since 1998.

It doesn’t take much to do the math and see if you’re burning $60 million to $80 million a year, and if the consumer market for fuel cells is optimistically not going to arrive until say 2015, you may need additional sources of capital.

—Jonathan Hykawy, analyst with Fraser Mackenzie Ltd.