Westport Innovations has acquired BAF Technologies and ServoTech Engineering, both subsidiaries of Clean Energy Fuels Corp. for $25 million in Westport stock. Westport and Clean Energy also announced a $5 million joint marketing and sales program.
With the purchase, Westport said it has secured its position as Ford’s largest partner under the Qualified Vehicle Modifier (QVM) program with over 10 products and approximately 150 Ford authorized dealerships. The transaction allows both Westport and Clean Energy to focus on the significant growth opportunities as natural gas emerges as a global fuel for transportation.
“We welcome the BAF and ServoTech teams to Westport,” said Ian Scott, executive vice president of Westport. “BAF has established a strong portfolio of natural gas vehicle products and customers over the past decade. With natural gas increasingly seen as a major transportation fuel around the world, we believe the combination of this new teams’ market experience and Westport’s technologies, scalable manufacturing processes and quality control systems will help create the type of products needed to deliver an OEM-quality vehicle experience to our customers.”
BAF supports clients with vehicle conversions through the Ford QVM program and aftermarket conversion products, alternative fuel systems, application engineering, service and warranty support. ServoTech offers a total engineering solution from initial concept phase to prototype hardware and final prove-out, including design and development of electronic products, software development, automotive exhaust simulation and testing, spark-ignition gasoline and diesel emissions technology, and offers technical training and education in a variety of subject areas.
Currently, Westport installs the natural gas Westport WiNG Power System on the Ford F-250 through F-550 series at its assembly center in Louisville, KY. This acquisition increases Westport’s product range with the Ford line to include transit, cargo shuttle and taxi vehicles and dedicated natural gas vehicles for markets such as California.
BAF has been producing a broad list of natural gas vehicle conversions for more than a decade and recently produced its 20,000 compressed natural gas (CNG) vehicle conversion, Westport said. Westport will continue to install the Westport WiNG Power System and the increased volume of orders expected through BAF will create economies of scale, and the BAF network will allow more flexibility in producing specialty configurations.
