Ceres Power partners with powertrain specialist AVL List to turbocharge fuel cell adoption

Ceres expects the partnership significantly to expand the number of products integrating its technology

Ceres Power Holdings PLC (LON:CWR) said it has signed a collaboration agreement with Austrian powertrain specialist AVL List that will see the two companies work together on licensing solid oxide fuel cells technology.

AVL has 20 years of fuel cell engineering experience, said Ceres, and is the world's largest independent company for the development, simulation and testing of all types of vehicle powertrain systems.

AVL's strength in engineering consulting will enable Ceres significantly to expand the number of products integrating its technology, it believes, with a first agreement already signed with an unnamed customer. 

Both companies can still market their respective technologies independently, but the agreement also allows for joint licensing with royalties shared between the two partners.

Access to AVL's business development resources will significantly expand Ceres' global reach and give access to customers that will benefit from differentiated technology, said the AIM-listed company.

It is expected that system customers from this relationship with AVL will drive demand from Ceres' stack manufacturing partners, currently Bosch and Doosan, which in turn will generate stack royalty payments for Ceres.

Phil Caldwell, Ceres chief executive, said: "The potential for Ceres' technology to play a role in the decarbonisation of the global energy system is substantial, and this collaboration with AVL is a significant step in our strategy to accelerate its adoption in an expanded number of applications and markets.

“As a licensing business, our ability to scale depends on successfully embedding our technology with a greater number of customers and AVL's global footprint, engineering scale and track-record in the fuel cell market, makes them an ideal partner for Ceres.