Specialist
Former C-level executive at Hyzon Motors
Agenda
- Hyzon’s business model and market opportunity
- Product assessment, technology differentiation and commercial relationships
- Manufacturing strategy and capital requirements across vehicle development and hub infrastructure
- Threat from direct competition across ICE and EV alternatives
Questions
1.
Can you start by outlining Hyzon Motors’ history and how it got to where it is now?
2.
What products has Hyzon developed and how did it do this so quickly?
3.
Have other companies tried retrofitting vehicles to convert them to being hydrogen fuelled?
4.
Are there certain trucks, brands or manufacturers with which retrofitting would be easier, or could this be done to pretty much any class A truck?
5.
Can you expand on the Hyzon-Horizon relationship? Who will own the intellectual property that will make these hydrogen-fuelled vehicles work?
6.
Why have Hyzon’s orders to date been so geographically spread? Has it just been taking any opportunity it can? Is the opportunity that is left great or would it make more sense to be concentrated in a few areas?
7.
There are 400 fuel cell buses and trucks today, according to Hyzon. How have these performed and where have they been deployed?
8.
Are there certain performance milestones or thresholds you expect from hydrogen-fuelled vehicles? Do you expect them to run for an extended period?
9.
Hyzon aims to increase speeds and reduce the price of a USD 240,000 truck to USD 150,000. How could the company decrease the cost to make this truck more competitive? What are the technical challenges of progressing from what we’re seeing in China and reaching higher speeds?
10.
Hyzon has been buying class A trucks with no engines and putting a fuel cell in each. You talked about reaching mass production in 2025-27. Where is fuel cell production likely to take place? How confident are you that costs will decrease?
11.
Hyzon plans to make coaches or buses, as well as medium- and heavy-duty trucks. Are synergies involved in these or does Hyzon view them as independent markets?
12.
What was the breakthrough that allowed Horizon to achieve the power density of the Titan fuel cell stack? Have there been step changes since 2003 or has it been a constant evolution to this point where it has the most powerful fuel cell in the market?
13.
Hyzon is going public through a SPAC [special purpose acquisition company] and will have nearly USD 600m to fund this. Do you think that is enough to reach commercial scale and maintain technological investment?
14.
Hyzon took an investment from French oil major Total. Bloomberg valued the company at USD 200m and it is going public at an enterprise value of around USD 2bn. What do you think has happened since the Total investment for Hyzon’s value to explode, despite everything that has happened with Nikola?
15.
Which companies do you think are legitimate technology competitors to Hyzon, considering oil companies are looking to invest SPAC/private equity money?
16.
Why is Hyzon’s programme likely to be more successful than General Motors’? You mentioned that competition is coming, and I know Hyzon’s CTO and COO came from General Motors’ fuel cell programme.
17.
Hyzon and Horizon’s power density has been superior. Why are they only interested in commercialising this now? Is it that the market just was not there before or the same reasons General Motors gave up?
18.
Do any operating difficulties still need to be worked on with hydrogen fuel cell vehicles? I recall the early days of EVs and your comments on hot and cold environments as well as terrain.
19.
Do you think there are limits to increasing power density, or can this continue to evolve, with G3 Titan being just one step along the way?
20.
How might a potential medium-duty truck or van customer who is considering EVs from companies such as Arrival or Workhorse or hydrogen fuel cell options make their decision, given your comments on how far the battery technology has come?
21.
Do you think Hyzon’s expected revenues of USD 3.3bn in 2025 is realistic?
22.
How would you advise our investor clients to distinguish between Hyzon and other competitors? I would expect more announcements and new entrants, but what key questions must be understood to identify industry winners and losers?
23.
Where are the important hydrogen commercialisation developments, considering the broad energy transition that extends beyond vehicles? Who owns that?
24.
Why is Hyzon likely to succeed and fail?
