Ballard Reports Strong 2010 Results and Provides 2011 Outlook

Ballard Power Systems (TSX: BLD; NASDAQ: BLDP) today announced preliminary results for the year ended December 31, 2010 and provided an outlook for 2011. All results are unaudited and amounts are in U.S. dollars, unless otherwise noted.

John Sheridan, President and CEO said, "Ballard delivered strong results in 2010, with 39% revenue growth and major progress towards profitability, while maintaining a solid liquidity position with cash reserves of $74.4 million." He added, "This performance provides a clear validation of our strategic transformation over the past three years and is further evidence of the bullish growth prospects for clean energy fuel cell products."

Key 2010 Results

Preliminary Financial (Unaudited)
# Revenue of $65.0 million for the full year, representing growth of 39% and meeting guidance.
# Gross margin for the full year of 16%, compared with 13% in 2009.
# Adjusted EBITDA(1) of ($26.0) million for the full year, an improvement of 33% over 2009.
# Cash flow from operations of ($29.3) million for the full year, representing a decline of 9% over 2009.

* On a comparable year-over-year basis, excluding Dantherm Power's cash loss of $6.2 million and negative foreign exchange impacts of approximately $4.0 million, cash flow from operations was ($19.1) million, an improvement of 30% over 2009, meeting guidance.

# Cash reserves of $74.4 million, with no bank debt.

Ballard expects to release audited 2010 financial results in early March 2011.

Growth
# Fuel cell stack shipments of 3,014 for the full year, representing growth of 104%.
# Backup power shipments grew 40% to 1,716 fuel cell stacks.
# Material handling shipments grew 6-fold to 1,100 fuel cell stacks.
# Of the Company's six growth milestones for 2010, four were met or exceeded and two were not achieved:

* Booked the first CLEARgen(TM) distributed generation system sale utilizing by-product hydrogen - milestone was met with K2 Pure Solutions.
* Delivered a 1 megawatt CLEARgen(TM) system to FirstEnergy Generation Corp. in Ohio - met in November.
* Deployed Dantherm Power backup power systems in one major new network - met with Wind Mobile.
* Grow the volume of stack shipments in material handling, in line with Plug Power's 2010 shipment target - exceeded with a 6-fold increase to 1,100 units.
* The milestone to book contracts in support of the deployment of 25 fuel cell buses was not achieved. The Company booked contracts in support of 19 buses.
* The milestone to begin shipments of Ballard's fuel cell stacks for deployment of IdaTech's reformate-based supplemental power systems for the India telecoms market was not achieved. However, IdaTech began shipping its new generation methanol- fueled product, powered by Ballard's FCgen(R)-1020ACS, to other Asian markets in December.

# Beyond these growth milestones, Ballard posted the following key market achievements:

* Backup Power - established a direct channel to this market with acquisition of a controlling interest in Denmark-based Dantherm Power.
* Distributed Generation - signed the Company's first FCgen(R)- 1300 stack supply agreement, for a one-megawatt system in Singapore.
* Bus - signed bus module supply agreements for zero-emission fuel cell buses in London and Brazil and was selected by the US FTA to power buses under the US National Fuel Cell Bus Program.
* Material Handling - extended the supply agreement with Plug Power under a mutually exclusive relationship for the North American market through 2014.

# Increased the twelve-month rolling order book to $35.0 million at year-end, up 54% from the 2009 level.

2011 Business Outlook

Ballard's 2011 outlook builds on the Company's strong 2010 results, which were delivered after a transformation initiated in 2008 that:
# Changed strategic focus from automotive fuel cell research and development programs, to commercial markets for clean energy, fuel cell products;
# Fundamentally re-set the cost base; and
# Strengthened the liquidity position through three key transactions.

Ballard will continue to aggressively focus on growth and profitability in 2011, with three over-arching priorities that will be reported on each quarter:

# Significant revenue growth through execution of its multi-market fuel cell product strategy;
# Maintenance of the cash operating cost base at current run-rate of approximately $40 million; and
# Continued improvement in gross margin towards its 30-35% target.

Ballard has issued the following guidance for 2011:
# Growth in revenue in excess of 30%; and
# Improvement in Adjusted EBITDA(1) in excess of 40%.