The company credited with inventing the hydrogen-powered racing car, GreenGT develops high-power electric-hydrogen mobility solutions. This SME with sites in Vaud and Valais also provides consulting services taking in the entire hydrogen value chain. Recently, its H24 electric-hydrogen vehicle was the first hydrogen-propelled racing car to take part in an international endurance race, shaking up the popular sport of motor racing.
Jean-François Weber is the brains behind GreenGT, established in 2008. The first battery electric propulsion system he developed for competition in 2005 had a number of limitations, not least in terms of weight and charging time. Aware of the potential of the fuel cell used in aerospace technology, in 2011 he launched the first 100%-hydrogen-powered racing car. Since then, the company has been developing high-power electric-hydrogen systems to improve the performance of heavy goods vehicles.
GreenGT is involved in motor sports, but the story doesn’t stop there. For the mobility industry, it offers services in the design and integration of high-power-density solutions along with prototyping and development, and it also supplies fuel-cell systems. In the infrastructure and local government sectors, GreenGT is involved in hydrogen projects throughout the entire implementation process. The company analyses the development potential of hydrogen ecosystems, identifies objectives and areas of priority action and provides its customers with strategic and operational input in their implementation of hydrogen energy solutions.
A new plant in Collombey-Muraz
In 2021 GreenGT moved its design and assembly operations to Collombey-Muraz. With staff and project numbers both more than doubling in two years, the company needed more space. “We now have enough room to build a fuel-cell systems assembly line and organise our propulsion systems integration workshop for our prototype vehicles. In all, we have 2,000 m2, with the option to extend this to 4,000 in the next few years,” says Frédéric Veloso, Strategy and Business Development Director at GreenGT. The company’s consulting, research and marketing activities remain at its head office at EPFL Innovation Park in Lausanne. Today, GreenGT employs a workforce of 45, 35 of them in Switzerland, and the company has plans to recruit another 5 to 10 by the end of this year.
This expansion goes hand in hand with some ambitious new projects. Currently in the pre-production phase of its high-performance fuel-cell systems, GreenGT is hoping to achieve an annual production capacity of several hundred units per year by the end of 2024. Through the Mission H24 project, the company is also involved in introducing a new hydrogen vehicle category at the Le Mans 24 Hours in 2025.
GOH!, a project that demonstrates the viability of a Swiss hydrogen industry
Ask Frédéric Veloso which project best illustrates GreenGT’s mission and, without hesitation, he’ll tell you it’s the Generation Of Hydrogen (GOH!) project. The objective of this project, begun with several partners in 2020, was to get a 40-tonne truck on the road powered only by hydrogen. Mission accomplished! “This collaborative project illustrates our pioneering role in high-power-density electric-hydrogen systems, our tried-and-tested competence in integrating electric-hydrogen solutions, and our ability to cover all the development phases,” concludes Frédéric Veloso. And if a 40-tonne truck can be powered with hydrogen, there are bound to be other ways in which hydrogen can be used in mobility!
