The Parisian Hype will install three hydrogen stations in Le Mans – Le Journal des Entreprises – Maine-et-Loire
The Parisian company Hype, manager of hydrogen taxis, is currently installing its first hydrogen distribution station in Le Mans in partnership with Le Mans Métropole. It will be commissioned in June 2023. This station, with a distribution capacity of 200 kg per day, is supplied by the Isère manufacturer HRS and fueled initially by green hydrogen produced by the Nantes company Lhyfe. It is accessible to all uses and located on land belonging to Le Mans Métropole, near the Actisud site.
7 European cities selected
Created in 2015, Hype manages 300 hydrogen taxis in Paris, “the largest fleet in the world”, and should more than double the number of vehicles in the coming year. Not communicating on its turnover, the company has taken a step forward and is now developing the infrastructures allowing the deployment of hydrogen. It invests in its own distribution stations (until now it obtains supplies from other existing stations). Thus, the operator inaugurated its very first station in the Paris region on 1er April, in Issy-les-Moulineaux (Hauts-de-Seine). Hype has selected seven cities to deploy its integrated hydrogen mobility platform: Le Mans, Bordeaux, Brussels, Madrid, Barcelona, Lisbon and Porto. The company plans to deploy at least 18 stations and three electrolyzers in these new cities by the end of 2025, as well as 26 stations in Île-de-France (including at least 20 high-capacity stations, i.e. one ton per day each) . Within each new region, Hype will rely not only on its global partners (Banque des Territoires, Vinci, HRS, McPhy, Akuo Energy, Ecolotrans) but also on players present in the targeted territories, explains the operator.
Two other stations to come in Le Mans
In Sarthe, a joint venture will be created by Hype with Le Mans Métropole and the Automobile Club de l’Ouest (ACO), which organizes the 24-hour races, in order to deploy a second green hydrogen distribution station in Le Mans, in 2024 at the latest. This second station will have a capacity of up to one tonne per day. The signing of a memorandum of understanding to create this joint venture was announced on Thursday April 20, on the occasion of the pre-opening of the first station in Le Mans, by Stéphane Le Foll, president of Le Mans Métropole, Mathieu Gardies , CEO of Hype, and Pierre Fillon, President of the ACO. Hype plans to deploy a third station in the Le Mans region by the end of 2025.
“The common ambition of Le Mans Métropole, Hype and their local partners is to make this territory a complete and leading hub for hydrogen mobility, in the short term.. This will integrate the production and distribution of green hydrogen, as well as the development of relevant associated uses”, they indicate. “From 2019, Le Mans Métropole has been committed to experimenting with hydrogen solutions with the acquisition of a hydrogen bus”, recalls Stéphane Le Foll. The Le Mans hydrogen hub will contribute to the acceleration of uses in the region, in particular via the deployment on the territory by Le Mans Métropole by the start of 2025 of ten buses and six skips. household waste.
