Stellantis has announced that he is disinterested in the production of hydrogen electric vehicles. Hordain, in Valenciennois, was to produce it. Worrying or painless decision for the utility production site? Response elements.
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“The hydrogen market remains a niche segment, without perspectives of economic profitability in the medium term,” said Jean-Philippe Imparato, Chief Operating Officer for Europe, in a press release published this Wednesday, July 16, 2025.
Stellantis has just slashed its hydrogen utility program, while some manufacturers like Toyota still believe it. The new management of Stellantis (Marques Fiat, Peugeot) has announced to end its development program in hydrogen, a news that has resonated like a thunderclap in the factory of its Contreprise Symbio, which plays its future in the Lyon suburbs.
The factory was to produce 50,000 hydrogen systems per year by 2026, including a large part for Stellantis, to support the rise in its offer of utility. It is also a new fatal signal for hydrogen in transport.
In Hordain (North), Franck Théry, CGT union representative on the Stellantis utility production site, fears dark days for its production site. “We stop hydrogen, we stop the thermal in the long term, and the hybrid: we cannot do here! What are we going to do?” Asks the union representative.
The site with 2,700 employees, including 1,750 on permanent contracts, has a production capacity of 150,000 vehicles per year. “But since PSA has become Stellantis – that is to say since the takeover of Opel – Luton sites in England and Bursa in Turkey joined the group. Luton closed in April 2025 and today, I fear that Bursa – which can make hybrid – has the favors of Stellantis to make its utility. It would be catastrophic”.
Contacted, Stellantis assures that this decision would be “painless for Hordain. The site has hydrogen stations, but not 100% dedicated positions to hydrogen”, indicates to North here The manufacturer’s communication, which adds focus on electric utilities.
Hydrogen vehicles are electric vehicles that operate thanks to a combustion cell that generates electricity, and only gives off water vapor. Compared to electric utilities, which are starting to multiply in cities, hydrogen vehicles are quickly recharged and benefit from great autonomy, criteria particularly sought after by companies.
They also need smaller batteries, and therefore fewer raw materials. But hydrogen models are very expensive to buy, around a hundred thousand euros per unit, and charging stations, expensive to install, remain rare.
However, France has just subsidized the purchase of these hydrogen vans, by putting them at prices with electric models. Franck Théry recalls that several million were allocated to Stellantis to produce 5,000 hydrogen vehicles in Hordain.
Renault also put liquidation in early 2025 its factory of oil hydrogen utilities (Yvelines). “Basically, there is no market for hydrogen vehicles (…). We sell cars at a loss,” said Renault boss at the time, Luca de Meo, in front of deputies. Above all, the quantity of “green” hydrogen (produced from renewable energies, making this energy much less polluting, editor’s note) is still insufficient, had stressed the Italian boss.
Among the car manufacturers, only Toyota, Hyundai and BMW continue to believe it with small development programs and a handful of vehicles in the streets. BMW still plans to launch on the market in 2028 an SUV converted to hydrogen, in partnership with Toyota, the world’s n ° 1 of the automobile and great support of this energy.
With AFP