Ballard accelerates drive to zero-emission transit with fuel cell bus workshop

Welcoming leaders and innovators from across the transit industry, Ballard Power Systems delivered a hands-on workshop focused on fuel cell electric buses on June 25 – sharing real-world expertise with an invited list of transit agencies from across North America.  The transit agency representatives gained practical, real‑world insights to deepen their understanding of - and build the capacity for - deploying hydrogen‑powered bus fleets and supporting infrastructure.

The one-day event, hosted at Ballard’s Burnaby, Vancouver headquarters, welcomed clean transit pioneers from a range of partners including CUTRIC, the Detroit Department of Transportation, Mississauga Transit, Vancouver Translink/Coast Mountain Bus, and King County Metro (Washington state) to explore how hydrogen fuel cell technology can help reshape public transportation in the U.S. and Canada.

Ballard provided an extensive tour of the company's advanced development and manufacturing facilities, and a deep-dive into its fuel cell technology - including the FCmove^®-HD+ 100kW engine - while visitors had the opportunity to directly engage with fuel cell specialists to broaden their understanding of the zero-emission technology. Ballard's team was complemented by partners New Flyer and HTEC, showcasing vehicle and infrastructure capabilities.

Delivering an 'under the hood' demonstration, attendees were treated to a first-hand experience of New Flyer's Xcelsior CHARGE FC™ fuel cell bus, which integrates Ballard's FCmove^®-HD+ module and currently powers approximately 180 public transit buses for agencies across North America, supporting transit authority operations in U.S. states including California, Nevada, and Pennsylvania; and Alberta, Canada. The group was then transferred to HTEC's facility nearby for a supplementary tour focused on the supplier's hydrogen production operations.

"It was a pleasure to have the opportunity to attend this workshop, and I appreciated how open Ballard’s team was in proactively sharing a lot of their knowledge and experience with fuel cell technology and the wider industry. Of particular interest to me was the conversation regarding Ballard’s training offerings, as well as their close collaboration with HTEC. Both factory tours were an excellent opportunity to get familiar and learn about the hydrogen industry in general, both from a fuel distribution and a manufacturing standpoint."

Andres Martinez Maintenance Technical Trainer, Mississauga Transit

Engaging directly with Ballard, New Flyer, and HTEC specialists, experts, and operating staff, the transit authority attendees were also encouraged to collaborate in an interactive roundtable that focused on fleet planning, lessons learned from existing real-world deployments, and the regulatory trends companies are observing in the sector.

Closing out a successful event, Ballard employees were also given the opportunity to experience some of the leading fuel cell technology, applications, and infrastructure up close in Burnaby.