The North American (NA) program will perfectly align with the Company's expansion plan and the maturity of Quebec's hydrogen ecosystem. First Hydrogen intends to develop two additional demonstrator FCEVs to showcase with potential North American fleet customers. The Company will continue its successful trial program in the United Kingdom with interested fleet operators.
First Hydrogen's FCEV trials have shown hydrogen power will be essential to meet the critical range, payload towing and fast refueling capabilities required by fleet operators transitioning to zero emission vehicles in sectors such as grocery, parcel delivery, mining and utilities which cannot be met by battery -electric vehicles (BEV). Over the past year, First Hydrogen's UK engineering team has generated knowledge and leading expertise in the hydrogen automotive sector during the development of the Company's first FCEVs.
The North American demonstrator program is the next step towards the Company's plans to build a vehicle assembly facility and green hydrogen production plant in Shawinigan, Quebec. The Company's 'Hydrogen-as-a-Service' model will provide customers in the Montreal-Quebec City hub with clean green hydrogen fuel and zero-emission commercial vehicles in order to accelerate the creation of zero-emission ecosystem solutions. The assembly facility target will be for annual production of up to 25,000 vehicles for distribution throughout North America and will represent a major boost to green technology jobs in the region.
The news comes as the Canadian Government has further committed to developing the country's hydrogen economy in its 2023 Fall Economic Statement. To stimulate investment in projects, it has launched clean economy investment tax credits for carbon capture and storage and net zero energy technology, including hydrogen. Introduced with C$17.7 billion (US$12.8 billion), the system is designed to help the country compete with the US and become one of the top three global producers of hydrogen fuel.
The North American, Quebec-based, development program will be led by Stéphane Gagnon as the Lead Engineer. Mr. Gagnon brings over 30 years of extensive experience to First Hydrogen, previously as program manager for the development of the Airbus A220 (C-Series) at Bombardier Aéronautique and as chief engineer at Novabus (a division of Volvo Group). Mr. Gagnon will work closely with Head of Automotive, Steve Gill and his team.
“It is important for us to share our knowledge gained from the development of the two UK FCEVs as we add FCEVs in Quebec” said Francois Morin, VP of Development – North America, First Hydrogen. “The additional FCEVs build momentum as we move forward with the hydrogen production and vehicle assembly plant in Shawinigan.”
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