Xcellsis Corp. (Vancouver, BC) announced that its fuel-cell development center in Poway will be phased out over the next few months as part of a sweeping shift in the structure of its parent company.
Xcellsis will lay off the bulk of its 115 employees by next spring, company officials said. Its parent, Ballard Power Systems Inc. (Vancouver, BC), plans to move all of Xcellsis' fuel-cell development efforts to an existing factory in Germany.
"We're going to consolidate our light-duty engine activity," said Paul Lancaster, Ballard's vice president of finance. "There are almost four times as many people in Germany as in Poway, so we wanted to consolidate the activity to achieve a critical mass."
Ballard expects that about 10 workers will remain in Poway to oversee the service operation. That number could expand in the future if the company's fuel cell technology catches on.
