Sacramento, Calif. – California Fuel Cell Partnership today announced Automotive Fuel Cell Cooperation, Corp. (AFCC) has joined CaFCP as a full member.

AFCC is a privately held company, and is the fuel cell stack research and development center of Daimler AG and Ford Motor Company. AFCC provides fuel cell stacks for automotive applications, including cars, buses, vans and trucks. As a member of the California Fuel Cell Partnership, AFCC will lend its technical expertise to the CaFCP goals of commercializing fuel cell vehicles.

“Automotive Fuel Cell Cooperation is committed to addressing the challenges of fuel cell commercialization,” said Dr. Andreas Truckenbrodt, CEO of AFCC. “We’re excited to become a member of the California Fuel Cell Partnership and partner with industry and government to make fuel cells a reliable, affordable, mainstream automotive propulsion technology.”

AFCC was formed on February 1, 2008 by transferring Ballard Power Systems’ automotive fuel cell research and development operations to the new venture. Ballard provided employees of its research and development divisions as well as all the intellectual property and expertise relating to automotive fuel cell applications to the new company.

“AFCC’s experience with automotive fuel cell technology will be valuable to CaFCP’s collective goals, ” said Catherine Dunwoody, executive director of CaFCP. “We look forward to working with AFCC to move California’s transportation systems to a cleaner, sustainable alternative using hydrogen and fuel cell vehicle technology.”