NEUMAN & ESSER and Ballard invest in QUANTRON, sets up a Hydrogen Alliance for 360° H2 platform solutions

 As part of a financing round by Quantron AG of up to EUR 50 million, Ballard Power Systems Inc. from Canada and the German hydrogen system specialist NEUMAN & ESSER are investing in Quantron Inc.

With a company valuation of 250 million euros, NEUMAN & ESSER acquires a minority stake and secures an option for further investment. With this, the machine and plant manufacturer underscores its commitment to this strategic partnership. Ballard Power also acquires a minority stake in the single-digit million range and concludes development cooperation with QUANTRON for the accelerated market launch of fuel cell trucks with up to 4 platforms in the next 12 months.

Quantron AG is a specialist in battery and hydrogen-electric commercial vehicles. With Quantron-as-a-Service (QaaS), it offers a 360-degree OEM-open ecosystem for its customers. The financing round serves to accelerate the development of further BEVs and FCEVs with a focus on heavy-duty trucks and to further expand the QaaS ecosystem together with QUANTRON's partner network. In the future, the Hydrogen Alliance will provide customers with a 360-degree platform that, in addition to zero-emission H2 vehicles, will also include the associated infrastructure from H 2 production to fueling.

NEUMAN & ESSER focuses on products and services related to a hydrogen to support customers in the decarbonization of their energy or industrial systems and decentralized applications. A significant part of the product portfolio focuses on the generation and use of climate-neutral hydrogen. The global group of companies contributes to the Hydrogen Alliance by providing the necessary infrastructure, in particular electrolysers and reformer technologies, as well as piston and membrane compressors for transport and storage up to complete hydrogen filling stations and bottling plants. With its comprehensive portfolio, NEUMAN & ESSER enables sector coupling as an important prerequisite for the transformation of fossil fuel-based oil &

The world's leading fuel cell experts from BALLARD POWER SYSTEMS have acquired a minority stake in Quantron AG as part of the financing round to accelerate the introduction of fuel cell vehicles in Europe and the USA. Ballard's investment is designed to support the development of fuel cell vehicle platforms under a Joint Development Agreement ("JDA"). Ballard will be QUANTRON's exclusive fuel cell supplier for these truck platforms.

As an important partner of the Hydrogen Alliance, Deutsche Tamoil / HEM was the first filling station operator to join and, together with QUANTRON, will examine the feasibility of H2 filling stations along their more than 400 HEM filling stations in Germany. These are to be upgraded with H2 refueling options in a staggered process, with a focus on refueling heavy-duty vehicles of QUANTRON customers.

"We want to offer our customers the best possible solution. The completed round of financing gives us the necessary scope to further develop our FCEV development and our environmentally friendly offers and at the same time strengthen our necessary partner network. Positioned in this way, we will best meet our customers' needs, including range, payload, and refueling time. However, we do not see ourselves as competitors to the existing OEMs, but rather as a platform partner for engineering and H2 refueling to accelerate the introduction of hydrogen as an energy source for transport, with a focus on heavy-duty and long-distance transport," says Michael Perschke, CEO of QUANTRON.

"In addition to battery technology, for which we also offer solutions, hydrogen applications are the second elementary component of the decarbonization of the mobility sector. To meet the increasing demand for hydrogen in this sector, we combine infrastructure know-how with fuel cell vehicle technology into an ecosystem with our strategic partnership. This gives the increasing number of customers access to a fully integrated mobility platform," said Stefanie and Alexander Peters, Managing Partners of NEUMAN & ESSER.

"This is one of the world's first commercially available fuel cell trucks for the demanding 44-ton segment. We know that freight logistics will increase over the next few years and decades, and with it greenhouse gas emissions, unless we have market-driven zero emissions solutions, so we are very excited to address this market opportunity in a partnership with QUANTRON, bringing together a vehicle integration expert and a leading fuel cell supplier," said Randy McEwen, CEO of Ballard Power Solutions.