Automotive

Hyperion plans to kickstart a H2 fuel network with mobile stations

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The Hyper:Fuel station is a mobile, self-contained unit that aims to be a fast, low-risk way to create a hydrogen fuelling network across the USA
Hyperion
The Hyper:Fuel station is a mobile, self-contained unit that aims to be a fast, low-risk way to create a hydrogen fuelling network across the USA
Hyperion
Look, if you've got a fancy supercar to stick next to things in photos, you do it
Hyperion
Oh look, there's somewhere to stand under if it's raining
Hyperion
Touch buttons and contactless payment
Hyperion
"OK, who parked the yacht out front?"
Hyperion
Plugged in to water and electricity, this should be fairly self-contained. We don't expect much from the solar panels
Hyperion
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Hydrogen supercar maker Hyperion isn't happy about the state of hydrogen fuel infrastructure, so it's decided to start building its own, rolling out yacht-styled mobile hydrogen stations across the United States that can generate fuel on-site.

According to IbisWorld, there are 72,296 gas stations in the United States. According to GLP Autogas, there are just 107 hydrogen fueling stations in the USA, including private fleet facilities. If you take California and Hawaii out of the picture, there are a grand total of zero. That's better than Australia, which offers you brave Nexo and Mirai drivers just three tank-filling options in the whole country – but even fuel cell vehicle proponents Japan and Korea only have 166 and 34 stations up and running, respectively.

It's bigger than a simple chicken-and-egg problem; many EV owners are delighted that they can charge up at home or work, so the idea of an EV that would send them back to the waiting arms of the gas stations is less than appealing. But hydrogen vehicles might end up playing a bigger part in the energy transition than expected; they're starting to look like the final refuge of the revhead, and besides, there's nowhere near enough lithium being produced to build all the electric cars everyone seems to expect will be sold over the coming decades.

Look, if you've got a fancy supercar to stick next to things in photos, you do it
Hyperion

Either way, Hyperion isn't going to sit around and cry about it. Two years after launching its XP-1, a hydrogen-powered electric supercar with a monster range over a thousand miles (~1,600 km) to a tank, the company has announced it's going into the fuel business.

Rather than getting stuck into real estate, building traditional fuel stations and setting up H2 supply chains, Hyperion has decided to build mobile fuel stops that can be towed wherever you want, and left there for however long makes sense.

As with the XP-1, Hyperion has gone out of its way to make these things look fully sick. Indeed, folk might drive past these things and assume somebody's fancy yacht's fallen off the trailer. Nope, it's a hydrogen station – indeed, one that can produce its own hydrogen, compress it, and store it.

Plugged in to water and electricity, this should be fairly self-contained. We don't expect much from the solar panels
Hyperion

Details are a little scant; if you want it to make hydrogen rather than just store and dispense it, you'd need to park it somewhere with access to fresh water to run through the electrolyzer. And while there are five "sun tracking solar panels" on the roof, you're gonna want a grid connection if you're expecting it to get a lot of use. You'd need a ton more solar to generate enough energy to fill up a single 100-kWh car battery every day, and even more when you factor in the inefficiencies involved with electrolysis. Ah well, the XP-1 has "articulating solar panels" on it as well, again in quantities best described as ornamental, so maybe it's a branding thing.

They don't appear to need constant staffing; customers will use touchscreens and tap-to-pay, and the fuel fillers will self-sanitize under UV light between fill-ups. They can be configured to serve as fast-charge stations for battery-electric cars as well, quick enough to get most cars from 0-80% in around 20 minutes, and Hyperion says it wants to send them out to disaster zones to serve as emergency power sources where required.

These "Hyper:Fuel Mobile Stations" will be manufactured at the company's facility in Ohio, and it'll start rolling them out "across the United States" in 2023. It plans to sit them at existing gas stations, in the car parks of big shopping malls, and in other high-traffic areas.

"OK, who parked the yacht out front?"
Hyperion

Hyperion sees this as a relatively fast and cheap way to get a fledgling hydrogen fueling network set up with minimal risk and investment. They won't need to buy land or sign long contracts; if they're not getting used, they can be moved somewhere else. It'll be interesting to see how they communicate these moves to customers, assuming they've begun to rely on a given station.

Check out a video below, if you're not already sick to the back teeth of watching videos about people filling up or charging their cars with really exciting music playing.

Source: Hyperion

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13 comments
martinwinlow
"Details are a little scant"... Says it all really, doesn't it...?!
David F
Phwoar! Timeslide. That car belongs in the 22nd Century.
michael_dowling
There are about 115,000 gasoline stations in the U.S. Is this Hyper:Fuel station concept going to match this number? If not,why would Joe Blow in Fargo,ND buy a FCEV today? It is yet another indication of how out of touch with reality the fuel cell crowd is.
mark34
It would be interesting to know the size of the connection to the grid that these 'mobile' stations would require.
Expanded Viewpoint
The unquenchable desire for people to come up with boondoggles, is equaled only by the unlimited desire to fall victim to them! Just how is this any kind of a solution to anything? What is the goal that is being sought, and why? Carbon Dioxide is GOOD for the environment, it's the food of all green vegetation! Or did the entire world just suddenly change, and that's not the way that things work these days??
Mike Malsed
I've been wondering why we don't have these . . . solar power (plus grid if needed) and water . . . boom, green H2.

The connections will be standardized, just like those for electric (even Tesla is getting on board, even if it's with a dongle) which will make it near-universal. Great idea. About time!
FB36
It is extremely bad idea to use hydrogen as fuel for land/sea/air transportation because it is pretty much explosive!
Imagine a future world w/ all kinds of hydrogen vehicles, tanker trucks, gas stations everywhere!
Are we seriously thinking that there will be never any accidents/leaks/ruptures/mishandling to trigger massive explosions?
Not to mention, there is actually no need at all to use hydrogen as fuel!
All light/small vehicles are already becoming fully electric & all heavy/big land/sea/air vehicles just need us to start producing biodiesel/biofuel at large scales!
(From all possible industrial/agricultural/forestry waste/biomass & trash & sewage!)
Mike Malsed
@FB36 - gasoline is very explosive. Any fuel we use is very explosive (except Diesel which requires compression to be explosive) or we wouldn't use it. Hydrogen needs a pretty specific schoitometric ratio to be explosive - the infamous Hindenberg explosion has been shown to have NOT been Hydrogen primarily (or it would have been invisible, etc.) - and with newer technology, we can store it and use it quite a bit more safely.

Electric has quite a few limitations that keep me away from it. For any trip that takes any amount of time, planning for extensive charging is quite bothersome. A 5 minute refill (similar to petro) would be significantly better than an hour (at best - for DC Fast Charging.) The typical range is also a hindrance, except for daily commutes. In fact, that's all an EV is really good for - commuting - but I can't afford TWO vehicles and their registration, insurance, etc. so I go with the vehicle that I need to do the OTHER activities and to fulfill OTHER commitments outside of my commute.

Add to this that we do not have enough Lithium or Cobalt production to fulfill half of what we will need in the next decade, and plants are not being built to the scale to GET that production, even at the growth rate we have not, much less any increases. And with the regulation and environmental costs involved, it's highly likely that we won't get much more built.

If there is a way to get clean green H2 (explosive) to replace carbon-heavy petrol (explosive) to get fast refills and effectively unlimited range, it will be a good thing.
Graeme S
Well, FB36 you are persistent, I gotta give you that, but you are wrong, Hydrogen is the future.
If this company and future others can get this concept to work it will be a game changer!
Smokey_Bear
"Hydrogen is the future"...I remember reading that in Popular Science as a kid...well, now I'm 39...and people are still saying "Hydrogen is the future".
hard pass. I drive a EV (Leaf), and In 1-2 years I'm planning on replacing it with another EV (Maverick). I'm done waiting on hydrogen, I think it's best use will be for big things, like aircraft & ships. But if it has rubber wheels, it will be BEV.
All the people b*tching about how we don't have the infrastructure for a 100% EV fleet, are short sighted fools.