United Natural Foods purchases a Large Volume of Fuel-Cell Driven Lift Trucks

It seems that the fuel cell lift trucks are increasing in number in the North American area. United Natural Foods, Inc. (UNFI) purchased over 100 fuel-cell lift trucks from Plug Power Inc., and those lift trucks are now operating (press release-2). The fuel cell units mounted on the lift trucks are GenDrive™ (TM = trade mark) units manufactured by Plug Power Inc.

The GenDrive uses the fuel cell stack (Fcvelocity™ (TM = trade mark)) manufactured by Ballard Power Systems Inc. Plug Power has exclusively used the fuel cell stacks manufactured by Ballard, and will use the same in the same way. “Power Plug and Ballard have extended their existing supply agreement, effective immediately, through 2014 (press release-1).” The press release-1 immediately follows the press release-2. The combination of Ballard and Plug Power takes a market share of over 85% in the material handling space.
For somewhat more detail, visit here.

press release-1:
“Plug Power And Ballard Extend Supply Agreement Through 2014” (July 15, 2010)
- Plug Power
- Ballard
press release-2:
UNFI Deploys Plug Power Gendrive Fuel Cells To Increase Productivity At Distribution Center (July 13, 2010)