• Hype, in partnership with Le Mans Metropole, will deploy its 1st station in Le Mans, which will be opened in June 2023. This station is the first step in Hype’s development plan in seven new regions in France and Europe: Le Mans, Bordeaux, Brussels, Madrid, Barcelona, Lisbon, and Porto.
• Hype, Le Mans Metropole, Cénovia1 and the Automobile Club de l’Ouest announce the signing of a memorandum of understanding to create a joint venture to build a 2nd hydrogen refuelling station. Hype will also deploy a 3rd station in the region by the end of 2025.
• Le Mans Metropole is thus at the forefront of initiatives aimed at accelerating the development of hydrogen mobility notably with the introduction of 10 buses and 6 waste collection vehicles by early 2025.
Hype, an independent pure player in hydrogen mobility, is currently deploying, in partnership with Le Mans Metropole, its 1st hydrogen refuelling station in Le Mans which will be in service by June 2023.
This dual-pressure station (350 and 700 bars), with a refuelling capacity of 200 kg per day, is provided by HRS and will initially be supplied with green hydrogen produced by Lhyfe. It is accessible to all and located on a plot of land belonging to Le Mans Metropole, close to the Actisud site.
This station benefits from the support of the Clean Hydrogen Partnership² , thanks to a grant secured by Hype as part of the European H2ME2 project.
By the end of 2025, Hype will build two additional stations in the Le Mans area
At the pre-opening of the 1st Hype station in Le Mans, Stéphane Le Foll, President of Le Mans Métropole, and Mathieu Gardies, CEO and Founder of Hype, announced with Jacques Gouffé, President of Cénovia¹ and Pierre Fillon, President of the Automobile Club de l’Ouest (ACO), the signing of a memorandum of understanding to create a joint venture to deploy a 2nd green hydrogen refuelling station, no later than 2024. This 2nd station, which will have a capacity of up to 1 ton of hydrogen per day, is part of the H2Ouest³ project supported by ADEME.
This 2nd station should also benefit from European subsidies as part of the “European Hydrogen Network by Hype” project, winner of the CEF – Transport – AFIF (Alternative Fuels Infrastructure Facility) competitive call for projects launched in November 2022 by the European Commission via the European Climate, Infrastructure and Environment Executive Agency (CINEA) to develop sustainable transport infrastructure in Europe.
As part of this project, Hype will deploy a 3rd station in the Le Mans area by the end of 2025.
Le Mans Metropole, at the forefront of initiatives to accelerate the development of hydrogen mobility uses
The shared ambition of Le Mans Metropole, Hype and their local partners is to make this territory a complete and leading hydrogen mobility hub in the short term. It will integrate the production and distribution of green hydrogen, as well as the development of relevant associated uses, with the goal of being a driving force of the regional hydrogen initiatives, situated between Paris, Angers, Nantes and Bordeaux.
In the field of heavy and light uses, the Le Mans hydrogen hub will contribute to the acceleration of uses in the region, notably via the deployment of 10 buses and 6 waste collection vehicles by the beginning of 2025 by Le Mans Metropole, supported by subsidies from ADEME secured within the framework of the H2Ouest project.
The will and support of local organisations, both private and public, will play a key role in the short term for the integration of hydrogen solutions in the transition of professional fleets.
Concerning the production of green hydrogen, the hydrogen hub in Le Mans aims to promote and integrate local initiatives.
Finally, this hub will be a forerunner in innovation and R&D, with the creation of Le Mans Metropole’s “Carbon Neutrality” Territorial Innovation Laboratory, which has already supported the financing of two PhD theses, whose research work focuses on hydrogen and the structuring of the local mobility sector. It will also host key events of the hydrogen sector, in particular the Le Mans Hydrogen conference in September.
STÉPHANE LE FOLL, President of Le Mans Métropole commented: “Le Mans Métropole is putting in place and encouraging all projects that help reaching its energy consumption and greenhouse emissions reduction goals. We consider hydrogen to play a significant role in the energy transition in our territory. Since 2019, Le Mans Métropole has been committed to implementing hydrogen solutions and bought a hydrogen bus. With the help of regional funding and the ADEME, we have carried on with this implementation, committing to buying 10 hydrogen articulated buses and 6 waste collection vehicles. The development of our ecosystem will continue with the support of initiatives from hydrogen players. We are very happy that Hype demonstrates an industrial interest in our region and participates in the development of our hydrogen ecosystem.”
MATHIEU GARDIES, Chairman and CEO and Founder of Hype said: “Hype is deploying today for the first time, and in a record time, a hydrogen refuelling station outside of the greater Paris area, our historical birthplace. This is a new step we are particularly proud of and one which is taking shape thanks to the support of Le Mans Métropole and its President, Stéphane Le Foll, who is fully committed to a pollution-free and carbon-free future. Le Mans is located at the crossroads of strategic axes in France and Europe. Our ambition is to contribute to boosting and accelerating the scaling up of initiatives already launched in Le Mans, in particular the H2Ouest project, and to work with the partners present in this ecosystem, simultaneously deploying green hydrogen refuelling infrastructure and the associated uses. Following on from Le Mans, we are going to develop our model, which has been tried and tested for more than 7 years in the greater Paris area, in the regions of Bordeaux, Brussels, Madrid, Barcelona, Lisbon and Porto.”
BART BIEBUYCK, Executive Director of the Clean Hydrogen Partnership, commented: “Motor racing has always been at the forefront of technology in the automotive sector, and the 24 Hours of Le Mans is one of the most renowned motor racing events. For the Clean Hydrogen JU, it was therefore important to support the construction of a hydrogen refuelling station in Le Mans through its flagship project H2ME2. Hydrogen mobility is already present in the city and there are plans to expand it even further.”
ABOUT LE MANS METROPOLE
Created in 1972, the urban community of Le Mans, now called Le Mans Métropole, shares a number of aims for the benefit of its member municipalities. Composed of 20 municipalities, Le Mans Métropole has 212,289 inhabitants and covers 273.12 km². Le Mans Métropole is responsible for many missions (economic development, mobility, housing, facilities, etc.). These territorial development policies are carried out in close consultation with the municipalities. The Métropole makes structuring investments, particularly in the fields of urban development, roads, cleanliness, sanitation, transport, innovation and renewable energy. These investments contribute to the influence of the entire territory. The municipalities that make up Le Mans Métropole: Le Mans, Aigné, Allonnes, Arnage, Champagné, Chaufour-Notre-Dame, Coulaines, Fatines, Fay, La Chapelle-Saint-Aubin, La Milesse, Mulsanne, Pruillé-leChétif, Rouillon, Ruaudin, Saint-Georges-du-Bois, Saint-Saturnin, Sargé-lès-le-Mans, Trangé, Yvré l’Évêque.
https://www.lemansmetropole.fr/
ABOUT HYPE
Launched in Paris in 2015 at COP 21 in response to the public health emergency of air and noise pollution in urban areas, Hype is developing the first hydrogen mobility platform integrating sourcing and production, distribution and uses, with taxis as the first relevant market. Hype, which has been operating the world’s largest fleet of hydrogen-powered taxis for more than seven years, now seeks to drive a rapid and mass transition to zero-emission on-demand transportation and professional mobility uses. Leveraging its speed of execution and agility with its scalable and integrated model designed to facilitate the use of zero-emission mobility solutions for as many drivers and customers as possible in the short term, Hype plans to deploy its platform in 15 other regions in France and around the world by the end of 2025.
www.hype.earth
PRESS CONTACTS
LE MANS METROPOLE
jerome.legrand@lemans.fr
HYPE
Laetitia Quignon 06 83 17 89 13
Kim Weichel 07 85 94 87 17
hype@brunswickgroup.com
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