New fuel cell manufacturing plant opens in Burnaby

Source: Nelson Bennett | · BIV · | June 29, 2022

Multi-million investment by Daimler, Volvo builds on local fuel cell expertise

Source: Cellcentric's new high-tech fuel cell manufacturing and R&D facility in Burnaby. | Chung Chow

Metro Vancouver’s reputation as hydrogen fuel cell technology hub was further cemented Wednesday with the grand opening of a new multi-million dollar manufacturing and R&D facility in Burnaby.

Germany’s Daimler Truck AG and Sweden’s Volvo Group last year created a new division, cellcentric GmbH & Co. KG, specializing in the manufacturing of fuel cell systems for medium- and heavy-duty trucks.

One of its new plants recently opened in Burnaby’s Riverbend Business Park -- just a few blocks from Ballard Power Systems (TSX:BLDP), where earlier iterations of cellcentric were born in 2008.

Previously operating out of a wing of Ballard’s Burnaby headquarters, the new cellcentric facility is twice the size and has three times the production capacity. The new 56,727-square foot facility employs 70 people, most of whom are engineers specializing in fuel cell technology.

The Burnaby facility produces hydrogen fuel cells and stacks – the core of fuel cell systems – for the medium- and heavy-duty truck market. They are then shipped to Germany where they are integrated into complete fuel cell systems for trucks at cellcentric’s headquarters.