A contract worth about $80 million added about $140 million to the market cap of fuel cell technology company Ballard Power Systems Inc. (NASDAQ: BLDP) Wednesday morning. Shares traded nearly 63% higher than Tuesday’s closing price at the intra-day high of $2.75.

The transaction with Volkswagen and Audi calls for the transfer of some auto-related fuel cell intellectual property and a two-year extension to an existing engineering services contract that Ballard Power has with the companies.

Last year another fuel cell company, Plug Power Inc. (NASDAQ: PLUG), announced a contract to supply more than 1,700 fuel-cell powered forklifts to Wal-Mart Stores Inc. (NYSE: WMT) and Plug Power, Ballard Power and FuelCell Energy Inc. (NASDAQ: FCEL) all hit multiyear highs. Ballard traded at its 52-week high above $8 a share on Plug Power’s announcement. Before Wednesday’s announcement, only Plug Power was trading higher for the year to date, and that by just 2%.

All these stocks posted all-time highs in 2000, with Ballard Power at the top of the heap with a share price above $122, compared with the current price around $2.70. Since 2000, the trail has been steadily down for all three, with an occasional bump to keep things interesting. Wednesday was yet another bump that is not likely to last.

Ballard Power traded up nearly 58% in the late afternoon, at $2.66 in a 52-week range of $1.41 to $8.38. The consensus estimate on the stock is $3.20.

Plug Power traded up about 7.5%, at $3.29 in a 52-week range of $2.48 to $11.72. The consensus price target is around $5.30.

FuelCell Energy traded up about 6.8%, at $1.36 in a 52-week range of $1.05 to $4.74. The consensus price target on the stock is around $2.90.

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