French Start-up Hyliko Inaugurates First Green Hydrogen Refueling Station in France
Hyliko, a French start-up specializing in retrofitting hydrogen trucks, has just inaugurated the opening of its very first refueling station located in Ile-de-France.
A few weeks after the commercial operation of its first retrofitted trucks at Point P and Toyota, the company unveiled its first green hydrogen station in advance in the town of Villabé, located south of Paris, on the edge of the A6 motorway in the Essonne department. It will be officially inaugurated next September.
A Green Hydrogen Refueling Station
Partners in the project, NEL and Mesure Process, a subsidiary of the MPH Energie group, have built this high-flow hydrogen refueling station dedicated to heavy trucks. It has a compression capacity of 350 bars (and eventually 700 bars). As Hyliko explains, trucks coming to this public station can refuel in about 20 minutes with green hydrogen produced by Lhyfe, a French supplier of green and renewable hydrogen.
Also a Maintenance Center
In addition, the site will also host a maintenance center dedicated to hydrogen heavy trucks, as well as professionals trained in handling this technology. The idea is to create an excellence center for industry players on-site. Hyliko also specifies that five vehicles – three heavy trucks retrofitted by the start-up and two vehicles from the Korean manufacturer Hyundai – will be operating on its site this summer, forming the largest fleet of hydrogen heavy trucks in France.
Plans to Have the Largest Station Network in Europe
It is worth mentioning that the first hydrogen vehicles retrofitted by Hyliko are already in circulation with transport companies like Point P with the Berto and Labatut LVI group, as well as with Bert&You and Toyota. Nonetheless, the start-up’s goal in the coming years is to offer the largest hydrogen station network for heavy trucks in France and Europe. To achieve this, Hyliko aims to connect its station network with other hydrogen industry operators in France.
Deployment of Zero Emission Heavy Trucks Could Take Longer Than Expected
According to the VIsion’Air study conducted by the French Federation of Bodywork Industry and Services (FFC) in partnership with BDO Advisory, new “zero-emission” heavy trucks will account for 30 to 40% of sales in Europe by 2030, falling below the “50% target set by most truck manufacturers,” as stated in the study.