Michelin is hailing the announcement of the France hydrogen strategy by public authorities.
France is ploughing EUR7bn (US$8.2bn) into hydrogen investemnt until 2030 into three priorities: industry decarbonisation, heavy transport using hydrogen and support for research and training.
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“The announcement of this plan is a major step in the development of a French hydrogen industry of excellence,” said Michelin chairman, Florent Menegaux.
“Michelin is convinced hydrogen mobility will be one of the essential components of clean mobility, complementary to electric batteries.
“However, hydrogen reaches far beyond mobility: it is a very interesting solution for combating CO2 emissions and air pollution. Through its flexibility of production and use, hydrogen is becoming essential to the energy transition.
“In particular, steel production, chemicals, district heating, and of course transport, can now be carbon-free thanks to this element. It is also, by far, one of the few technologies promoting industrial and energy sovereignty for Europe. For all these reasons, hydrogen is a strategic growth area for Michelin.
“A significant share of the group’s business will effectively be non-tyre related in ten years’ time.”
Regarding French technological building blocks for hydrogen mobility, Michelin is involved through Symbio, its subsidiary co-owned with Faurecia. The new measures will allow Symbio to become a hydrogen fuel cell system company with a target turnover of around EUR1.5bn (US$1.7bn) by 2030.
Symbio’s future European industrial site will be located near Lyon and will create hundreds of jobs in the area says Michelin. With regard to large-scale regional hydrogen hub projects, Michelin intends to accelerate its development with industry stakeholders.
The Group is a pioneer with Zero Emission Valley, the first European initiative to deploy hydrogen mobility on a regional scale (Auvergne-Rhône-Alpes). The project provides for the installation of 20 stations powered by green hydrogen and the deployment of 1,200 hydrogen vehicles for business use by 2023.
For this project, Michelin become a shareholder of Hympulsion, the company in charge of installing and operating the 20 stations, alongside Engie, the Auvergne-Rhône-Alpes region, the Caisse des Dépôts and Crédit Agricole.
Michelin is also taking a number of other actions to facilitate the deployment of hydrogen mobility, including motor racing, which the Group considers an essential laboratory for innovation and a technological showcase.
As such, in June, 2020, the Group and Symbio became partners of the Mission H24 project, which aims to apply hydrogen technology to endurance vehicles competing in the 2024 24 Hours Le Mans.
The Group is particularly involved in Europe as a member of Hydrogen Europe, the association for hydrogen manufacturers in Europe and the European Clean Hydrogen Alliance bringing together industry stakeholders at the European Commission’s initiative.
