Hopium is a French automobile brand created in 2019 by

Olivier Lombard Olivier Lombard (born 25 April 1991 in Poissy) is a French racing driver, racing in the FIA World Endurance Championship for Signatech-Nissan. Career After karting from 2004 to 2008, Olivier Lombard began racing cars in 2009 when he contested th ...

, a French racing driver.

History

Founded in 2019 by young French racing driver

, the youngest winner of the

24 Hours of Le Mans The 24 Hours of Le Mans (french: link=no, 24 Heures du Mans) is an endurance-focused Sports car racing, sports car race held annually near the town of Le Mans, France. It is the world's oldest active Endurance racing (motorsport), endurance r ...

in the

LMP2 A Le Mans Prototype (LMP) is the type of sports prototype race car used in the 24 Hours of Le Mans, FIA World Endurance Championship, IMSA SportsCar Championship, European Le Mans Series and Asian Le Mans Series. Le Mans Prototypes were create ...

category, Hopium aims to launch and assemble a hydrogen-powered automobile in France. On December 23, 2020, Hopium was listed on the Access compartment of

Euronext Paris Euronext Paris is France's securities market, formerly known as the Paris Bourse, which merged with the Amsterdam, Lisbon, and Brussels exchanges in September 2000 to form Euronext NV. As of 2022, the 795 companies listed had a combined marke ...

. In May 2021, the French equipment manufacturer

Plastic Omnium Plastic Omnium is a French automotive supplier specialising in the manufacturing and commercialisation of plastics. History Plastic Omnium was founded by Pierre Burelle in 1946. It began making plastic steering columns for Renault, but soon exten ...

announced a partnership with the automotive brand and would supply the hydrogen storage system for the Hopium Māchina. On June 17, 2021, the brand presented its first rolling prototype called Alpha 0 on the sidelines of the

Viva Technology Viva Technology, or VivaTech, is an annual technology conference, dedicated to innovation and startups, held in Paris, France. VivaTech was founded in 2016 by Publicis Groupe and Groupe Les Echos. The first two days of VivaTech are for startups ...

show in

Paris Paris () is the capital and most populous city of France, with an estimated population of 2,165,423 residents in 2019 in an area of more than 105 km² (41 sq mi), making it the 30th most densely populated city in the world in 2020. S ...

. Hopium took advantage of this announcement to open its book of 1,000 numbered pre-orders at the reservation price of €410. On October 21, 2021, Hopium and Saint-Gobain Sekurit announced a partnership to co-develop the windows of the Māchina, the first model of the French car brand. In 2022,

Minister of Transport A ministry of transport or transportation is a ministry responsible for transportation within a country. It usually is administered by the ''minister for transport''. The term is also sometimes applied to the departments or other government agen ...

Jean-Baptiste Djebbari Jean-Baptiste Djebbari (or Djebbari-Bonnet; born 26 February 1982) is a French aircraft pilot and politician of La République En Marche! (LREM). Djebarri was appointed as Secretary of State for Transport on 3 September 2019 under Prime Minis ...

under the Jean Castex government joined the company's board of directors, which sparked controversy.

Haute Autorité pour la transparence de la vie publique The ''Haute Autorité pour la transparence de la vie publique'' (HATVP) (lit. High Authority for the Transparency of Public Life) is an independent French administrative authority created by the law on transparency of public affairs on October 1 ...

(HATVP) gave an opinion on this professional project, excluding a ''priori'' the risk of illegal taking of interests, but indicating an ethical risk which makes it necessary to supervise the former minister.

Māchina Vision

The Hopium Māchina Vision is a

hydrogen fuel cell A fuel cell is an electrochemical cell that converts the chemical energy of a fuel (often hydrogen) and an oxidizing agent (often oxygen) into electricity through a pair of redox reactions. Fuel cells are different from most batteries in requ ...

electric Electricity is the set of physical phenomena associated with the presence and motion of matter that has a property of electric charge. Electricity is related to magnetism, both being part of the phenomenon of electromagnetism, as described by ...

luxury Luxury may refer to: *Luxury goods, an economic good or service for which demand increases more than proportionally as income rises *Luxury tax, tax on products not considered essential, such as expensive cars **Luxury tax (sports), surcharge put ...

sedan from French car manufacturer Hopium. It was presented at the

2022 Paris Motor Show The 2022 Paris Motor Show (in French ''Mondial de l'automobile de Paris'' or ''Mondial de l'Auto'') is an international auto show, which was held from October 18 to October 23, 2022, at the Paris Expo Porte de Versailles, in Paris, France. It ...

and scheduled to be produced from 2025 at a price of 120,000 euros. A rolling prototype was unveiled in June 2021.

History

This Hopium concept car project (created in 2019 by

, former French driver of the ) is a technological showcase for a future hydrogen car, created by Felix Godard (former designer at

Porsche Dr. Ing. h.c. F. Porsche AG, usually shortened to Porsche (; see #Pronunciation, below), is a German automobile manufacturer specializing in high-performance sports cars, SUVs and sedans, headquartered in Stuttgart, Baden-Württemberg, Germany ...

, Tesla and

Alpine Alpine may refer to any mountainous region. It may also refer to: Places Europe * Alps, a European mountain range ** Alpine states, which overlap with the European range Australia * Alpine, New South Wales, a Northern Village * Alpine National Pa ...

). It has a futuristic design, 4

bucket seat A bucket seat is a car seat contoured to hold one person, distinct from a flat bench seat designed to fit multiple people. In its simplest form it is a rounded seat for one person with high sides, but may have curved sides that partially enclose ...

s, panoramic glass roof with controlled opacity and dashboard with digital haptic display. It is powered by a

electric motor An electric motor is an Electric machine, electrical machine that converts electrical energy into mechanical energy. Most electric motors operate through the interaction between the motor's magnetic field and electric current in a Electromagneti ...

with a claimed top speed of . The engine is powered by an

electric battery An electric battery is a source of electric power consisting of one or more electrochemical cells with external connections for powering electrical devices. When a battery is supplying power, its positive terminal is the cathode and its negati ...

recharged by a hydrogen

fuel cell A fuel cell is an electrochemical cell that converts the chemical energy of a fuel (often hydrogen) and an oxidizing agent (often oxygen) into electricity through a pair of redox reactions. Fuel cells are different from most batteries in requ ...

, with a

hydrogen tank A hydrogen tank (other names- cartridge or canister) is used for hydrogen storage. The first type IV hydrogen tanks for compressed hydrogen at were demonstrated in 2001, the first fuel cell vehicles on the road with type IV tanks are the Toyota F ...

at 700

bar Bar or BAR may refer to: Food and drink * Bar (establishment), selling alcoholic beverages * Candy bar * Chocolate bar Science and technology * Bar (river morphology), a deposit of sediment * Bar (tropical cyclone), a layer of cloud * Bar (u ...

pressure, and has an advertised range of .

References

External links

Official website
* * {{Portal, Automobile, France Motor vehicle manufacturers of France French brands Vehicle manufacturing companies established in 2019 Car manufacturers of France Concept cars Electric concept cars Hydrogen cars