Plastic Omnium expects to be able to double its hydrogen order book within a year, currently around four billion euros, thanks in particular to the unexpected strengthening of the US market, said Tuesday the general director of the New Energies division of the automotive supplier.
Plastic Omnium has also significantly increased its market forecast for this electrical technology in North America. By 2030, the region should account for a third of the world market, on a par with Europe and Asia, while until now the United States represented a negligible amount in the projections.
“For 18 months, things have largely changed with the famous IRA (Inflation Reduction Act) subsidizing, quite heavily, a number of economic sectors, including green energy production establishment, and the Hydrogen falls right there,” said Marc Perraudin during a press conference on the group’s strategy.
“It is not the IRA that incites us”
A long-time specialist in fuel tanks, Plastic Omnium has committed to diversifying its activities away from relying solely on internal combustion vehicles, developing for example in pressurized hydrogen storage and fuel cells.
This technology is called, according to the group, to coexist with that of battery-powered vehicles. L’hydrogène, qui permet de produire son électricité à bord en ne rejetant que de l’eau, convient mieux aux engins lourds – gros pick-ups, bus, camions et trains régionaux – tandis que l’électrique à batterie restera ultramajoritaire pour les cars.
Plastic Omnium announced in April that it had won a €2.4 billion mega-order in the United States for hydrogen systems for utility vehicles. This contract, signed with a manufacturer whose identity the equipment supplier did not specify, will require the construction by 2026 of a new plant – the group’s tenth in hydrogen – probably in the Midwest, Marc Perraudin continued.
“It is a strategic choice that is not based on subsidies, but on a market analysis. Since we want to continue to grow, there are probably many more sources of growth in the Americas, in Asia, in North Africa and throughout the Mediterranean belt. than in Europe,” he added.
Source: BFM TV
