Nicolas POCARD

Biographical note
 Nicolas Pocard, Director of Marketing, brings to Ballard more than 15 years of experience in high technology products sales and marketing at international level. Prior to joining Ballard, Mr. Pocard worked for COE Ltd. in Europe and Asia where he secured major contracts and developed strategic partnerships with major telecom, energy and transportation companies.
Nicolas Pocard joined IdaTech in 2004 as sales director for Europe where he promoted fuel cell technology to European customers. In 2008 he moved to Asia to set-up IdaTech Representative Office in Kuala Lumpur and developed market and sales in the region. He joined Ballard Power Systems in 2012 following the acquisition of IdaTech assets and was responsible for Ballard sales in the Asia Pacific region. In April 2014, he was appointed Director of Marketing and Business Operations at Ballard headquarters in Vancouver. Among his responsibilities, Nicolas looks after route to market strategy, marketing activities and product development for Ballard commercial products.
Mr. Pocard holds a degree in Chemical Engineering from ESCOM (Paris) and a Master’s of Science from The Ohio State University (USA).

Presentation: Commercial deployment of fuel cell buses in China; hundreds of vehicles on the road by 2018
Air pollution in China has reached a critical level with a dire impact on human health. Authorities are taking steps to improve air quality by regulating emission but also actively funding clean vehicles through the “New Energy Vehicle” policy.
Fuel cell technology is one of the technologies selected and supported by this program. Central and local governments provide funding for transit buses and fueling infrastructure to bridge the gap between diesel and zero-emission vehicles.
Hydrogen fuel cell technology has come a long way from the early days. This proven technology is now hitting the road and delivers new opportunities for mass transit applications. Fuel cell buses offers many advantages to transit bus operators including long autonomy; route flexibility and fast refueling while meeting  the objectives of funding authorities: serve disadvantaged communities, reduce GHG, improve urban air quality, and contribute to economic development. Fuel cell bus technology is maturing rapidly while moving in-step along a descending cost curve.
There will be more new fuel cell buses on the road in the next 18 months than ever built in the past 20 years with the strongest demand coming from China. We will present an overview of the current commercial fuel cell transit bus deployments in China.