Ballard's Material Products Division Receives $78-Million Contract Extension for Friction Material

    VANCOUVER, British Columbia--Dec. 18, 2001-- Ballard Power Ballard Power Systems announced today that its Material Products Division has signed a five-year contract extension with an existing customer valued at $78-million (US$50-million) for the supply of carbon friction material for automatic transmissions.
    "This contract extension confirms our ability to meet the needs of our customers as a tier 1 supplier to the automotive industry," said Bill Foulds, Director of Ballard's Material Products Division. "Over the next five years Ballard's carbon products will be put in up to an additional 20 million vehicles."
    "We continue to generate value from our Material Products Division in carbon materials engineering and automotive component manufacturing," said Firoz Rasul, Ballard's Chairman and Chief Executive Officer. "We are proud to be a supplier to the automotive industry. Our volume manufacturing of this material provides a strong basis for the development of additional carbon products for use in fuel cells and other applications."
    Ballard Power Systems is recognised as the world leader in developing, manufacturing and marketing zero-emission proton exchange membrane ("PEM") fuel cells for use in transportation, electricity generation and portable power products. Ballard's Transportation Division develops, manufactures and markets complete fuel cell engines for the transportation market. Ballard's Electric Drive and Power Conversion Division develops, manufactures and markets electric drive trains for both fuel cell and battery powered electric vehicles, and power conversion equipment for microturbines and other distributed generation products. Ballard's Power Generation Division develops, manufactures and markets fuel cell power generation equipment for markets ranging from 1-kilowatt portable power products to larger stationary power generation products. Ballard's Material Products Division is a Tier 1 automotive supplier of friction materials for power train components, as well as a supplier of gas diffusion layer materials to the fuel cell industry. Ballard's proprietary fuel cell technology is enabling automobile, electrical equipment and portable power product manufacturers to develop environmentally clean products for sale. Ballard is partnering with strong, world-leading companies, including DaimlerChrysler, Ford, ALSTOM and EBARA, to commercialise BALLARD(R) fuel cells. Ballard has also supplied fuel cells to Honda, Nissan, Volkswagen, Yamaha, Cinergy, Coleman Powermate and Matsushita Electric Works, among others.
    This release contains forward-looking statements that are based on the beliefs of Ballard's management and reflect Ballard's current expectations as contemplated under the Safe Harbor provisions of the U.S. Private Securities Litigation Reform Act of 1995. When used in this release, the words "estimate", "project", "believe", "anticipate", "intend", "expect", "plan", "predict", "may", "should", "will", the negative of these words or such other variations thereon or comparable terminology are intended to identify forward-looking statements. Such statements reflect the current views of Ballard with respect to future events based on currently available information and are subject to risks and uncertainties that could cause actual results to differ materially from those contemplated in those forward-looking statements.
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