HysetCo launches to promote the development of hydrogen mobility

The first ever company devoted to the development of hydrogen mobility in the Paris region, HysetCo, has been launched thanks to a collaboration between Air Liquide, Idex, Société du Taxi Électrique Parisien (STEP) and Toyota.

This joint venture represents a major step in the advent of a hydrogen-based society in France, and in the development of Hype – the world’s first fleet of zero-emission hydrogen-powered taxis, launched in 2015 during the COP21.

HysetCo will make it easier to roll out hydrogen fuel cell vehicles and their recharging infrastructure within the Île-de-France region in order to reach the objective of 600 taxis by the end of 2020. Toyota will deliver an additional 500 Mirais by the end of 2020, which will complete the existing fleet of 100 Hype vehicles.

This joint-venture covers the distribution of hydrogen and the development of mobility-related applications.

Through this project, the partners are committing to clean mobility and the improvement of air quality, as well as illustrating that hydrogen mobility is a suitable solution for passenger transportation. The organisation’s mission is to promote the sector’s transition towards zero emissions, with an objective of “zero emissions for taxis/VTCs by the 2024 Paris Olympic Games”.

Hype’s fleet of taxis will be able to rely on a wider network of charging stations, following the recent opening of a new recharging point in Roissy, near Paris-Charles-de-Gaulle airport, which joins the existing ones (Paris-Orly, Les-Loges-en-Josas, and Pont de l’Alma).

“The partnership we are announcing with Hype, Idex and Toyota materialises this shared ambition to work together for the common good. There are already 100 hydrogen taxis in the streets of Paris using the four hydrogen recharging stations that we have built. Expanding this fleet to 600 taxis will contribute to improving the air quality in our capital by the end of 2020. This great project brings technology, ecology and the new economy together. All in service of reinventing taxi, one of the main mobility means,” said Pierre-Étienne Franc, Vice-President for Hydrogen Energy, Air Liquide.

Thierry Franck de Préaumont, President, IDEX, said: “We are convinced that fuel cell electric vehicles will develop and that they will rapidly extend to heavy goods vehicles, due to limitations in battery storage capacity. Idex is convinced that hydrogen will become an important link in the energy value chain and pays particular attention to innovative technologies for the interactive storage of energy at a local level in order to maximise the value of their interaction in real time.”

Mathieu Gardies, President, STEP, commented: “For the last three years, we have shown with Hype that hydrogen is a real solution for helping essential activities like taxis to eliminate emissions. Thanks to the launch of HysetCo, and the partnership with Toyota for the next 500 Mirais before the end of 2020, we will be able to ramp up our development and prepare a comprehensive hydrogen mobility solution with our partners, which will be offered to other transport operators on a bespoke basis by 2021, so that they too can achieve zero emissions.”