Alstom ‘to pause hydrogen train development’, blaming French state for stopping subsidies
Alstom is pausing further development of hydrogen trains, the manufacturer told French media. The company will of course honour current orders for hydrogen-powered regional trains in France and Europe, but is pausing certain activities in the further development of hydrogen technology for rail. An impending discontinuation of French state funding is the reason, says the company.
Alstom presented the world’s first hydrogen-powered passenger train, the Coradia iLint, in 2022 with much fanfare. But now, 3 years later, it’s putting a brake on further hydrogen development. French paper La Lettre came out with the news last Monday, stating that Alstom was affected by what it calls ‘the bursting of the hydrogen bubble’, the early 2020s hydrogen hype — with corresponding investment push — having lost its shine.
French subsidy discontinued
After questions by BFM Business, Alstom confirmed “having made the internal announcement of the suspension of activities related to the IPCEI (Important Project of Common European Interest) programs” due to “the interruption of state funding”.
That likely refers to the IPCEI Hy2tech project. The EU launched this IPCEI project in July 2022, with 5.4 billion in European funding, aiming to attract another 8.8 billion euros in private investments. The project included next to Alstom for example Daimler Truck and Bosch, far from being limited to the rail sector. The project runs until 2027, and on the European Commission website, Alstom’s part of the project is funded by the French Recovery and Resilience Plan, also involving EU funding. These activities at the Alstom Hydrogen subsidiary will reportedly stop, and employees working on those projects redeployed.
In any case, Alstom will not stop out of the blue with any activities related to hydrogen, it’s still got orders ongoing and says it remains “committed on a daily basis to its current hydrogen train customers in three European countries”. RailTech reached out to Alstom for clarification on what the pause of activities means in practice, which was not yet received at the time of publication.
The manufacturer did say to BFM it is in “regular and responsible dialogue with the state in order to identify solutions to ensure the sustainability of the group’s activities and the ‘made in France’ hydrogen sector”. In France, 12 trainsets have been ordered for the Bourgogne-Franche-Comté, Occitanie, Grand Est, and Auvergne-Rhône-Alpes regions. Alstom will also supply six hydrogen fuel cell trains to Lombardy in northern Italy, with the option for eight more.
CEO warns Europe should not fall behind on hydrogen
Commenting on the news, Alstom CEO Henri Poupart-Lafarge, said:
Hydrogen technology is not yet fully mature”, to BFM Business.
“The performance of fuel cells is improving, but there is still progress to be made”. For that, more investment and subsidies are needed, the head of Alstom implies. “Investments in the sector are slowing down in Europe while Asia, and China in particular, continues to invest massively in hydrogen solutions. We cannot predict how quickly this technology will reach maturity, but I wouldn’t want Europe to fall behind beyond recovery in 10 years,” he warned.
Hydrogen-powered regional trains supplied by Alstom has been operating in Lower Saxony, Germany since summer 2022. However, the regional transport authority decided a year after that it will replace its remaining diesel fleet with battery trains, already not boding well for the image of hydrogen trains. In addition, German regional rail operator RMV, which ordered Alstom hydrogen trains for its Taunus network, said late last year that it is replacing some of its new hydrogen fleet with diesel rolling stock in 2025, after a “two-year series of mishaps”.
The news of Alstom pausing hydrogen development is another blow to the already rather battered image of hydrogen trains. Whether any technological advancement will pull hydrogen trains out of the slump, remains to be seen.
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Alstom ‘to pause hydrogen train development’, blaming French state for stopping subsidies, source
