Stellantis announced yesterday that it has commenced exclusive talks with France’s Faurecia and Michelin to buy a “substantial” stake in their Symbio joint venture, a fuel cell system maker for hydrogen mobility.
Stellantis launched hydrogen-powered mid-size vans late last year and aims to expand H2 power to large vans in Europe in 2024 and in the U.S. in 2025, “while further exploring opportunities for heavy-duty trucks”.
Stellantis CEO Carlos Tavares said Symbio’s technical roadmap “perfectly” matched with the company’s hydrogen roll-out plans in Europe and in the USA. “This move will foster the speed of development to bring low emission products to our customers, beyond traditional electric vehicles” he said in the statement.
Faurecia’s CEO Patrick Koller added that Stellantis entry “will accelerate and globalize Symbio’s growth.”
Earlier this year Symbio announced its HyMotive project to accelerate its industrialization, with a plan to increase total production capacity in France to 100,000 systems per year by 2028 while generating 1,000 additional jobs.
The transaction, for which no financial details were provided, is expected to be finalized in the first half of 2023.
