Stellantis Joins Rising Checklist Of Hydrogen Mobility Retreats

Stellantis, one of many world’s 5 largest automakers and a proponent of hydrogen gas cell electrical autos for gentle business autos, has now formally signaled a retreat from its hydrogen ambitions. This pivot away from hydrogen-powered transportation represents yet one more affirmation of the longstanding challenges confronted by hydrogen in mobility markets. Stellantis’ shift underscores elementary financial and infrastructural weaknesses which have inevitably plagued hydrogen-based automobile methods, regardless of persistent over optimism and much an excessive amount of funding.

This current announcement follows Stellantis’ high-profile dedication in early 2024 when it launched eight new hydrogen gas cell electrical van fashions. On the time, Stellantis aimed to place itself prominently as Europe’s chief in zero-emission business automobile propulsion, taking a 33% stake in French gas cell provider Symbio. The automaker projected manufacturing of as much as 10,000 hydrogen-powered vans by the top of 2024, suggesting confidence in a market poised to develop quickly on account of anticipated coverage help and infrastructural investments throughout Europe.

Nonetheless, inside months, actuality started to intrude sharply on these optimistic projections. Former Stellantis CEO Carlos Tavares publicly acknowledged the prohibitively excessive prices related to hydrogen mobility. In April 2024, simply two months after the formidable launch, Tavares admitted that hydrogen gas cell automobile prices have been extraordinarily excessive and much from reasonably priced. Regardless of efforts to make these autos aggressive, together with slashing the worth of its Opel Vivaro HYDROGEN van by 40%, the automobile remained roughly 80% dearer than comparable battery-electric options. The tough financial actuality turned unimaginable for Stellantis to disregard or mitigate, elevating elementary questions on hydrogen’s viability for business transportation at scale.

The departure of Tavares in late 2024 additional highlighted strategic uncertainties inside Stellantis. Whereas his departure was attributed broadly to disagreements with the board, the unresolved questions concerning the course of Stellantis’ hydrogen technique seemingly performed an element within the decision-making turbulence on the automaker. Stellantis’ subsequent resolution to step again from hydrogen confirms the deep-rooted structural points that hydrogen transportation has constantly encountered, significantly the failure of anticipated European coverage and infrastructure investments to materialize.

The promised hydrogen refueling infrastructure, a vital prerequisite for significant adoption of hydrogen autos, has seen little progress in Europe. Member states haven’t delivered on implementing the EU’s Different Fuels Infrastructure Regulation, seemingly as a result of nations that aren’t Germany see it as nonsensical and costly, leaving Stellantis and different automakers who invested closely in hydrogen autos with out refueling infrastructure to help even modest fleet enlargement. This mirrors the sample seen elsewhere, the place hydrogen infrastructure guarantees have repeatedly been introduced however not often delivered at significant scale, and the place early rollouts have seen abandonments of refueling akin to Shell’s international retreat.

Renault’s current failure with its Hyvia three way partnership illustrates an identical narrative. Hyvia, Renault’s partnership with Plug Energy aiming to supply and provide hydrogen fuel-cell vans and associated infrastructure, was liquidated by a French courtroom earlier this yr after failing to safe sufficient orders to stay viable. Renault CEO Luca de Meo bluntly acknowledged the shortage of a marketplace for hydrogen autos, confirming the extreme mismatch between optimistic trade forecasts and precise shopper demand. The collapse of Hyvia, which as soon as was heralded as a strategic pathway for Renault into hydrogen, additional exemplifies how even well-backed partnerships falter when confronting hydrogen mobility’s inherent limitations.

The destiny of Symbio, France’s main fuel-cell provider, additionally hangs within the stability following Stellantis’ strategic withdrawal. Symbio lately appointed Jean-Baptiste Lucas, former CEO of bancrupt electrolyzer producer McPhy, as its new chief, which itself indicators uncertainty across the firm’s future prospects. Stellantis’ withdrawal creates important uncertainty for Symbio, given Stellantis was a significant investor and buyer. With out agency commitments from automakers, fuel-cell suppliers face a tough highway forward, weak to market contractions which have already undermined different hydrogen-focused ventures globally.

In Paris, the expertise of Hype taxi provides one other pointed instance of hydrogen transportation’s challenges. Initially celebrated as a daring enterprise to deploy hydrogen-powered taxis throughout France’s capital, Hype finally deserted its hydrogen ambitions and pivoted decisively towards battery-electric autos. Regardless of substantial preliminary investments and high-profile partnerships meant to develop hydrogen refueling networks, the financial realities pressured Hype’s management to acknowledge that hydrogen taxis have been just too expensive and infrastructure-dependent to maintain.

Comparable situations have unfolded repeatedly world wide. Nikola Company in the US initially promised a daring imaginative and prescient for hydrogen-powered vans, usually extra a fraudulent mirage than a actuality. The fraudulent mirage caught up with it and its founder and CEO, with over $100 million fines and a 4 yr jail sentence, one prevented solely by a full pardon by one other CEO with a historical past of fraudulent enterprise dealings below his belt, not that that prevented American’s for voting him in as President. Regardless, Nikola went bankrupt as was virtually sure from the start.

Equally, Hyundai scaled again manufacturing targets for its NEXO hydrogen automobile on account of weak gross sales and inadequate infrastructure. It’s bringing a redesigned NEXO to marketplace for the 2026 mannequin yr, at the very least in concept, however as the worldwide hydrogen automobile market is plumbing new depths of homeopathy, it’s questionable whether or not that it’s going to ever hit showrooms, by no means thoughts streets.

Toyota’s Mirai, closely sponsored and promoted because the flagship hydrogen passenger automobile, has failed to achieve important traction even in supportive markets. In California, individuals who purchased into the hydrogen dream by way of leasing a Mirai are protesting within the streets and suing Toyota.

Common Hydrogen and ZeroAvia, two high-profile hydrogen aviation ventures, have confronted steady delays and monetary pressures. Common rolled up store final yr, whereas ZeroAvia continues to roll slowly alongside and sometimes off of the runway.

Among the many persistent monetary challenges dealing with the hydrogen sector, Plug Energy, Ballard Energy and FuelCell Vitality stand out as emblematic cautionary tales. Plug Energy has misplaced $3.12 billion since 2010, a median of roughly $200 million a yr, with out ever reporting a revenue. Its 2023 losses alone totaled almost $1.4 billion, with comparable losses anticipated in 2024. Most lately, it’s inventory worth dipped into delisting territory, under $1 per share, for 27 buying and selling days, virtually hitting the 30 day marker that routinely triggers delisting. (Mea culpa: in a earlier article I assumed it had had hit 30 days, nevertheless it inched up above the brink earlier than the 30 days have been up.)

Ballard Energy, based in 1979 and pivoted to gas cells within the late Eighties, has equally by no means reported an annual revenue, dropping a median of $55 million a yr since 2000, amounting to greater than $1.3 billion in cumulative losses, whereas its inventory worth languishes close to penny ranges.

FuelCell Vitality, public since 1992, has amassed losses of $680 million between 2019 and 2024, averaging about $113 million per yr, additionally by no means turning a revenue in its greater than 5 a long time of operation. These three companies present how even a long time of effort, a whole lot of thousands and thousands in subsidies and repeated technological pivots can’t overcome the structural weak point of hydrogen markets.

Most lately PlugPower introduced a shocking 200 to 1 reverse inventory break up. That’s among the many largest single cut-off date reverse inventory splits, though not the biggest general. FuelCell Vitality has been desperately attempting to maintain its inventory above $1. Most lately it reverse break up 30 to 1 in late 2024, however its historical past of occasional splits and frequent reverse splits nets out to a 720 to 1 reverse break up.

That stated, Plug Energy’s fiscal place is about what you’d anticipate from an organization that has bled cash for many years. Whereas the Board permitted the stratospheric reverse break up, it didn’t approve issuing extra shares on the market to attempt to elevate cash. The agency solely has the mortgage from the US DOE for hydrogen electrolysis services which can be dealing with critical headwinds below the Trump Administration. Whereas the loans have been assured below the Biden Administration and seem to not have been yanked, that doesn’t imply the hydrogen services might be constructed, that the mortgage funds might be disbursed or that Plug Energy will be capable to pay them again. My guess is usually no to all three.

Stellantis’ resolution aligns completely with these patterns beforehand detailed in analyses of hydrogen transportation failures, together with my January 2025 evaluation in Transportation Agency Deathwatch. There, I highlighted that hydrogen-powered electrical vertical takeoff and touchdown (eVTOL) plane tasks confronted an identical structural hurdles as ground-based hydrogen autos: uncompetitive economics, daunting infrastructural necessities, and overly advanced provide chains. Stellantis’ exit confirms that these structural limitations are neither remoted nor sector-specific, however endemic to hydrogen as a transportation gas.

In the end, Stellantis’ departure from hydrogen will not be merely a company-specific retreat. As a substitute, it needs to be seen as affirmation of a broader strategic shift throughout the transportation trade. I’ve been monitoring the collapse of the phantasm that hydrogen might be a transportation gas, one thing that’s been clearly coming for a very long time, however which was clearly going to occur largely this yr as funding ran out and it was unimaginable for founders to cowl up the failures with a tune and dance anymore. Of the 162 companies in my monitoring spreadsheet, a full 34 have now gone stomach up or dropped hydrogen, and companies like Plug Energy and Gasoline Cell Vitality are hanging on by their fingernails.

The persistent failure of hydrogen mobility initiatives worldwide underscores hydrogen’s elementary disadvantages in comparison with battery-electric options, which supply decrease prices, less complicated infrastructure wants, and confirmed scalability. Policymakers, traders, and automakers ought to now fastidiously reassess any lingering hydrogen mobility ambitions in opposition to the great file of constant, expensive failures exemplified by Stellantis’ expertise.