We wrote about HysetCo recently, when the startup raised almost 200 million euros to finance the company's solutions for decarbonizing urban transport. France-based HysetCo offers solutions for the hydrogen mobility segment, including the deployment of hydrogen refill stations, as well as a hydrogen vehicle rental service and fleet management. HysetCo aims to deploy an additional 12 new stations by 2025.

To find out more about the company's vision for the future of mobility, as well as upcoming business plans that could help us shape a more sustainable European transport system, we talked to Loïc Voisin, CEO of HysetCo.

As Loïc told us, HysetCo started operations at the end of 2020 in the hydrogen mobility sector and so far gathered a team of 80 experts that help with product development, as well as keeping the four refill stations in France fed with 30 tons of hydrogen per month.

HysetCo is one of the leading companies in hydrogen mobility in France and Europe, as per the company's CEO, and that is due to a bidirectional business model, which includes the development, installation, operation and maintenance of its hydrogen refill stations. The second component to this business model is managing its own fleet of hydrogen vehicles, which helped convert 500 professional drivers to clean mobility, as well as offering full maintenance and repair for these vehicles, when needed.

The advantages of hydrogen mobility

Hydrogen fuel cell vehicles are an alternative fuel type of vehicle that is more similar to EVs rather than fossil-powered vehicles, since they use hydrogen in order to power an electric motor. The major advantage of these vehicles is that they are just as easy to top up at a fuel station as gas or diesel cars compared to EVs, which have to wait tens of minutes to do that.

The drawback is the fact that there are not that many hydrogen-refilling stations around the world and there aren't that many hydrogen-powered cars, either. But this is what startups like HysetCo can change in the future, when more and more stations will be added.

Toyota is a car manufacturer that researched this alternative fuel for vehicles since 1992 and in 2014 the Japanese carmaker released the Mirai, a hydrogen-powered sedan.

These vehicles, Loïc said, "have the same advantages as an electric vehicle, such as no noise, no odor, zero emissions, no vibrations, which is very important, because we are focusing on drivers that have an intense usage of their cars. Sometimes they can spend 8-10 hours inside their cars, so this comfort is quite important."

Another huge advantage of hydrogen cars, compared to their battery-powered counterparts, is that these can be refilled so much faster, taking around 3-5 minutes to fill a hydrogen tank back up, as opposed to a battery, which takes about an hour if we're talking about a high-end vehicle.

The range is also an important factor to take into account and this is another aspect where hydrogen cars outperform their battery cousins. Loïc cites around 600-650 kilometers of range for the vehicles that the company operates in its fleet.

HysetCo offers a range of vehicles in its hydrogen-powered fleet, including Toyota's very own Mirai second generation, as well as the Peugeot e-Expert and Renault Master hydrogen. So, basically three vehicles for most needs, whether you need a vehicle suitable for logistics or for personal transport that you can take in vacations.

"We are doing this to decarbonize transport and to have very concrete impact on the air pollution, especially in our cities", HysetCo's CEO told Green Start-Up.

And we don't have to think about the future of green mobility, as Loïc believes that "it's a reality" and the numbers show it, too. Over the past year, HysetCo experienced a 100% growth in its operations and the company constantly supplies its existing four hydrogen stations with 30 tons of fuel per month. Most of the company's refill stations are located around the Paris metropolitan area. Each driver uses around 80-100 kilograms of hydrogen per month, as per HysetCo's executive, meaning that the stations are serving their purpose, but it also proves the efficiency of these vehicles.

Also, the more-than 600 drivers that currently operate the company's fleet of zero-emission vehicles are driving for 3 million kilometers every month, proving the feasibility of hydrogen-powered cars. And as Loïc told us, the cars are very reliable in the sense that the team doesn't have to do much more than simple maintenance.

Despite quite a few crashes in the company's fleet of vehicles, there haven't been any reports of hydrogen tanks exploding, which is reassuring, as this is one of the worst fears drivers have when thinking about fuel cell-powered vehicles.

"So far, we have no hydrogen-related accident in our cars and we have a lot of crashes, because everything is very well secured. You can shoot the tank with a gun and nothing will happen", Loïc explained.

The future of Europe's hydrogen mobility

Since hydrogen proved to be a viable alternative to fossil-based transport and a complementary solution to batteries, how come we don't see more of these cars roaming around?

"We have many challenges to face. First is that we need to have enough vehicles and different models. Today, if you want to buy or lease hydrogen cars, you have only two options, either Toyota or Hyundai, so we need more car manufacturers to go into this market", Loïc explained.

Stellantis, Renault and Mercedes-Benz are some of the largest and more popular manufacturers that can capitalize on this market and they are developing their products in this direction, he added, but they are not ready for the market at this very moment.

The next challenge and perhaps one that is more significant is that we need more hydrogen refill stations. Until 2030, Europe should have around 1.000 hydrogen stations available for refills, while Romania should have five of those, with the first two being up and running by 2025.

HysetCo will contribute to the growth of the number of hydrogen refill stations itself and by July of this year, the company wants to open four more stations in Paris, looking to expand to more French cities, as well as in Europe, in the future.

Besides adding more hydrogen refill stations in the Paris area, Loïc told Green Start-Up that he plans to structure the company better, as the operations grow and the team needs to be expanded. At the same time, the expansion of the refill station network further in Europe is also planned and also adding more hydrogen-powered vehicles in the fleet with the help of Stellantis.