Hydrogen vehicles | Supercar designer reducing risk by producing H2 on site at futuristic mobile filling stations

Portable units encompass rooftop solar, electrolysis systems and rapid EV charging, with Hyperion promising a speedy roll out in the US next year

Hyperion's Hyper:Fuel mobile filling station, and its XP-1 luxury sports carPhoto: Hyperion

Rachel Parkes

The company behind a hydrogen supercar has unveiled its plans for a mobile refuelling station that can produce H₂ on-site from solar panels on the roof — and aims to sidestep the hydrogen demand conundrum by regularly re-locating to where the customers are.

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Hyperion Motors, a California-based start-up says its Hyper:Fuel Mobile Station can fill a hydrogen fuel cell electric vehicle (FCEV) in five minutes — or fast-charge a battery electric vehicle to 80% in 20 minutes.

The central plank of the filling station’s financial model is its ability to move to areas where there is high demand, which could potentially be done with the help of a digital tool that tracks real-time customer needs.

This could enable it to crack the “chicken and egg” problem of hydrogen infrastructure — where investments in H₂ vehicles and filling stations are both being held back by a lack of confidence that each will grow.

The company envisages rolling out the filling station next year, moving it to and from “existing gas [filling] stations, big box stores and other high-traffic locations to meet real-time demand”.

However, the Hyper:Fuel station does not appear to have wheels, so would probably have to be lifted and moved with specialist equipment such as a crane.

Hyperion Motors has not responded to detailed questions from Hydrogen Insight at the time of publication.

The company has not disclosed how much it is planning to invest in the filling stations — nor how much the hydrogen would cost — but it is far from clear whether hydrogen demand exists in sufficient quantities to justify the product.

There are around 15,000 hydrogen vehicles on the road in the US, compared to 2.5 million EVs — so the mobile units’ ability to fast-charge battery-powered cars hedges against the H2 demand risk, and may allow them to be profitable in the short term.

“This enables it to service two separate vehicle segments simultaneously at lower cost and risk compared with permanently installed charging stations or hydrogen dispensers,” Hyperion claims.

The Hyper:Fuel station concept can also be used to provide stationary back-up power.

“Today’s energy infrastructure is pushed to its absolute limit,” Hyperion chief executive Angelo Kafantaris said. “The industry needed a versatile, scalable solution to power our growing needs.”

Hyperion, which raises funds for its activities from venture capital markets, has already taken a punt on hydrogen vehicles, launching its XP-1 hydrogen supercar in 2020, which it claims incorporates Nasa technology.

The company claims that the filling station’s ability to produce its own hydrogen would reduce costs, as there would be no need to pay for the transportation of H₂.

And this month, the pump price of hydrogen in California, the world’s second-largest fuel-cell vehicle market, surged by over a third, making hydrogen vehicles four times more expensive to run than home-charged electric vehicles. Most of the H₂ sold at pumps in California is shipped in from out of state.

Hydrogen vehicles | Supercar designer reducing risk by producing H2 on site at futuristic mobile filling stations

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