Leclanché will provide its proprietary battery technology to Canadian Pacific for its hydrogen locomotive program.

The CP hydrogen-powered locomotive pioneering project, first announced in December 2020, will retrofit a line-haul diesel freight locomotive with hydrogen fuel cells and Leclanché's European manufactured lithium-ion batteries to power the locomotive's electric traction motors. Leclanché will also provide its proprietary energy management software for optimum integration. The project is designed to evaluate the combined technologies' readiness for the freight rail sector. Once the locomotive is operational, CP will conduct rail service trials and qualification testing. CP operates a 21,000-km rail network across Canada and the U.S. that serves deep-water ports on the Atlantic and Pacific Oceans.

The market for freight rail is large and growing across the world. In 2018, year-over-year, Canada's freight rail sector's workload, measured by gross ton-miles, increased by 6.2%, and increased 10.1% compared with the five-year average. The distance travelled by Canada's freight trains, measured by freight train-miles, increased by 5.4% to 68.6 MM in 2018 versus 2017.