The one who had been Minister of Transport between 2019 and 2022, had been appointed chairman of the board of directors of this company which is preparing a car using hydrogen.
The former Minister Delegate for Transport Jean-Baptiste Djebbari was replaced on Wednesday as president of the French start-up Hopium, which saw itself in “Tesla of hydrogen”, less than a year after taking office.
Jean-Baptiste Djebbari, who took care of Transport in the government between 2019 and 2022, was appointed in June 2022 chairman of the board of directors of this company which is preparing the production of cars using hydrogen.
A new president, Alain Guillou, was appointed on Wednesday, Hopium said in a statement.
Alain Guillou notably managed Naval Group, a French group specializing in naval defense construction.
The arrival of Jean-Baptiste Djebbari on the board of directors of Hopium had raised controversy, the announcement having fallen while he was still a minister for a few hours.
“New projects in progress”
The High Authority for the Transparency of Public Life (HATVP) opposed another retraining project for the former airline pilot within the shipowner CMA CGM.
“The board of directors thanked Jean-Baptiste Djebbari for his involvement and his energy which made it possible to increase the national and international visibility of Hopium and to set up the bases of an organization whose vocation is to promote the company from the stage of a start-up to that of an industrial company”, writes the latter.
Asked by AFP, Jean-Baptiste Djebbari explained that he had “new projects being structured” and that he wanted to “devote himself fully” to them.
He said he would reveal their content “in the days (or) weeks to come”.
This is the “reason why I organized my succession at Hopium”, he said.
The start-up is developing a fuel cell and a luxury hydrogen sedan, which would be the first non-utility hydrogen vehicle produced in France.
The company, which announced at the end of September the construction of a factory in Normandy, indicated in January that it could cut its workforce.
She stressed on Wednesday that she had “a goal of achieving profitability within four years”.
