The current tense economic situation does not stop at the H2 industry. Home Power Solutions (HPS) now had to step into a series of insolvencies. The Berlin company is currently looking for investors who enable the Heliocentris successor to continue working or restructuring. Dr. Henrik Colell, the co-founder and long-time managing director of both HPS and the predecessor Heliocentris, left HPS in October 2024. His long-standing companion and former CEO Zeyad Abul-Ella has not been there since December 2023. In mid-January 2025, the new chairman of the board was Roman Thomaßin, who succeeded Matthias Holder.
Before that, companies such as Proton Motor and HH2E (see reports in H2-international Jan. 2025) had already released employees. Inhouse Engineering also registered insolvency at the end of 2024, but has now found a company, Schubert GmbH, that is taking over part of the assets. However, what will become of the previous fuel cell activities and In-house 5000 is currently still open.
Fig.: After layoffs, Hydrogenious is getting new money and a new management team
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Source: Hydrogenious
Hydrogenious LOHC Technologies also announced in December 2024 that it would have release about a quarter of its staff. This affected around 50 employees at the Neuss and Erlangen locations. In mid-February 2025, however, the message came in that the chemical company Covestro and the Winkelmann Group, Chevron Technology Ventures and Anglo American Platinum would invest 17 million euros as part of a new funding round to secure the business ramp-up.
It is currently still open whether things will run similarly happily with Quantron and Hyzon. Quantron AG initiated the insolvency proceedings on January 1, 2025, after the manufacturer of H2 commercial vehicles had played well to the media for years. Company founder Andreas Haller wanted to renovate the company himself. However, there seems to be no hope for the US Hyzon Motors. After the manufacturer of FC trucks prepared employees for layoffs at the end of 2024, the board voted in January to dissolve the company.
The company Pepper Motion, which, among other things, carried out the system integration of the electrical drive train in H2 commercial vehicles from Paul Nutzfahrzeuge, has been in the insolvency self-administration process since February 2024. In the summer of 2024, however, a Turkish investor bought up Pepper, so its future is secured for the time being. In the meantime, Paul ramped down its H2 activities significantly. In mid-February 2025, the Vilshofen-based truck builders announced that a mediation agreement was concluded with the Mercedes-Benz commercial vehicle center in Germany in order to promote the sale of the PH2P® hydrogen trucks.
With Nikola, another commercial vehicle provider is currently threatening to decline, so things could run similarly there as with the US provider of alternative H2 storage for aircraft Universal Hydrogen, who went bankrupt last summer.
