The time has come to choose for Hopium. The French start-up that still dreams of becoming the Tesla of hydrogen will have to review its strategy due to lack of financing. The company has decided to prioritize the development of its fuel cell technology. This decision should make it possible to generate income in a shorter period of time than its futuristic hydrogen sedan.
“Hopium’s fuel cell system constitutes a differentiating technological asset, having been the subject of 27 applications for patents, designs and models”, explains the company.
“To accelerate the adoption of hydrogen technology, the entire industry faces the same technical challenge: to offer the maximum power in the minimum space, taking into account the environmental impacts throughout the life cycle”, explains Olivier Lombard, founder of Hopium. .
Initially, the company attracted investors with its “Machina” sports sedan. But the financial context is less rosy and they require faster results. The Hopium share, launched at one euro at the end of 2020 on the Paris Stock Exchange, had seen its value explode to 42 euros, before collapsing at the end of 2022. On Wednesday, it was no longer trading at just three euros at closing .
With this change of strategic axis, its new director Sylvain Laurent, a former member of the Dassault group, wants to provide “more security, rigor and credibility on a series of structural approaches”.
“The Machina allowed us to condition the equipment and have a technological advantage in record time in the fuel cell system,” that is, the hydrogen cell and its management subsystems, said Sylvain Laurent.
A rolling prototype “late 2023 or 2024”
The assembly plant should open in Normandy at the end of 2024, with about forty employees, and the first batteries will be on the market in 2025. These batteries will allow Hopium’s “know-how” to be “quickly enhanced”, with the automotive sector, but also in the sector naval in the ranks, according to the director of Hopium.
The “Machina”, for its part, should be entitled to a first rolling prototype “at the end of 2023 or 2024”. This 500-horsepower sedan was presented to great fanfare with a launch scheduled for 2025 and an announced range of 1,000 kilometers.
Hopium is not the only start-up in the automotive sector facing difficulties. Many others, such as Canoo, Nikola or Lordstown Motors in the United States, are reviewing their projects. In Germany, Sono even announced at the end of February that it was abandoning its “solar” car project in favor of integrating its technology into other vehicles, with 300 layoffs at stake.
Hopium took out €2 million of convertible bonds in early 2023, and obtained a €2 million loan from the Normandy region. The company posted a net loss of 9.5 million euros in the first half of 2022. The company is due to give more details about its accounts when it presents its results on April 28.
Experts and industrialists remain divided on the place of hydrogen in the decarbonisation of the automotive sector. Toyota or BMW place great hopes on it, while many other brands reserve it for utility vehicles, which are more difficult to convert to electric.
Source: BFM TV
