French start-up Hopium will prioritize the development of its fuel cell technology, which promises shorter-term revenue than its futuristic hydrogen sedan.
Choice time has come for Hopium. The French start-up which still dreams of becoming the Tesla of hydrogen must review its strategy for lack of funding. The company has decided to prioritize the development of its fuel cell technology. This decision should make it possible to generate revenues in the shorter term than its futuristic hydrogen sedan.
“Hopium’s fuel cell system constitutes a differentiating technological asset, having been the subject of 27 patent, design and model filings”, explains the company.
“To accelerate the adoption of hydrogen technology, the entire industry is faced with the same technical challenge: to offer maximum power in minimum space, while taking into account the environmental impacts throughout the cycle. of life,” explains Olivier Lombard, founder of Hopium.
Initially, the company appealed to 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 only 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 certain number of structural approaches”.
“The Machina allowed us to constrain the teams and to have a technological lead in record time on the fuel cell system”, ie the hydrogen cell and its management subsystems, assured Sylvain Laurent.
A rolling prototype “end of 2023 or 2024”
The assembly plant should open in Normandy at the end of 2024, with around forty employees, and the first batteries will be marketed in 2025. These batteries will make it possible to “rapidly enhance” Hopium’s “know-how”, with automotive, but also from the naval sector on the ranks, according to the director of Hopium.
The “Machina”, for its part, should be entitled to a first rolling prototype “by the end of 2023 or 2024”. This 500 horsepower sedan was presented with great fanfare with a scheduled launch in 2025 and an announced range of 1,000 kilometers.
Hopium is not the only start-up in the automotive sector to face 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 the abandonment of its “solar” car project in favor of the integration of its technology on other vehicles, with 300 redundancies at stake.
Hopium drew at the beginning of 2023 bonds convertible into shares for a value of 2 million euros, and obtained a loan from the Normandy region of two million euros. The company recorded a net loss of 9.5 million euros in the first half of 2022. The company must provide more details on its accounts when presenting its results on April 28.
Experts and industrialists remain divided on the place of hydrogen in the decarbonization 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.
