By 2025, the ambitious French start-up Hopium intends to produce its first hydrogen cars, called Machina, in France.
If electricity tends to become more democratic, this is less the case with hydrogen. However, many manufacturers are interested in this energy which could be, in a few years, the main alternative to 100% electric cars.
Toyota and Hyundai currently offer fuel cell-powered cars, while BMW also plans to enter this market within a few years. Conversely, some manufacturers, such as Volkswagen, consider the technology too complex to deploy and too inefficient and are betting everything on electricity.
The deployment of new energy generally involves the arrival of new companies. This is the case of the French start-up Hopium, the “first French manufacturer of high-end hydrogen vehicles” as stated by the company itself.
An ambitious French brand
Hopium is managed by driver Olivier Lombard, winner of the 2011 24 Hours of Le Mans, but its only product remains a prototype for the moment, the Hopium Machina. This is an opulent hydrogen sedan whose power would be at least 500 hp and the range of about 1,000 km. For the moment, the brand has not said much more about the technical specifics, but in terms of style, the Machina impresses.
Its production version should arrive in 2025 and, good news, the French company has decided to produce its car in France, and more precisely in Normandy, near Vernon. Hopium intends to employ “more than 1,500 people” on this site, which will eventually consist of a factory with an annual production capacity of 20,000 vehicles and a research and development center.
With such a production capacity, Hopium should eventually present another vehicle than the Machina, less expensive and therefore with a higher sales volume.
Hydrogen, how does it work?
Hydrogen has the advantage of emitting only water vapor, which makes it one of the main avenues for replacing hydrocarbons, in the same way as synthetic fuels. The European Union will in particular set up a new public bank dedicated to the development of hydrogen, capable of investing three billion euros.
However, as stated above, hydrogen is not necessarily the energy on which everyone relies. Indeed, experts and industrialists are divided on the place of hydrogen in the decarbonization of the automotive sector.
Its production is energy-intensive and largely dependent on fossil fuels, while the lack of distribution stations is also a brake on its development. This energy is of interest, for the moment, mainly to industries dedicated to utilities and heavy goods vehicles. But also to boats and planes.
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