Hydrogen cars chasing break-even

Danish company H2 Logic hopes that Scandinavia will be nominated as a test region for hydrogen cars. If this happens, the sky is the limit for the company.

If H2 Logic has its way, 5-600 Danish cars will run on hydrogen in 2015. In order to get to that point – and beyond – it is, however, necessary to convince the right politicians that more money needs to be allocated to the hydrogen industry. And that is something that the employees of H2 Logic are working hard on. In fact, one of the founders, Mikael Sloth, spends most of his time lobbying in the political arena.

H2 Logic produces both hydrogen refuelling stations and fuel cell systems for cars. Hydrogen is produced by splitting water. This requires electricity, and if it comes from renewable sources, such as windmills, hydrogen is CO₂-neutral. Hydrogen technology is still in its infancy. H2 Logic compares the level of development with the windmills industry in 1979, when the first Danish windmills were being tested.

Watch a film about H2Logic

Annual growth

The turnover has increased every year since the company was established in 2003. During the last few years the growth has been an average of 30 per cent a year. The company has been able to be self-financing since the start-up by combining funds from research programmes with product sales.

Since it was founded in 2003, the company has completed three major projects – all financed by private and public sources. In 2007, for example, H2 Logic received support to the tune of EUR 1.75 million for the development of five test hydrogen stations and an operational station, which was inaugurated by the Danish Climate and Energy Minister Connie Hedegaard in 2008 under intense press scrutiny.

Vital partnerships
The hydrogen station was the first of its kind in Denmark, but there are similar stations in California, Japan and several other Nordic countries. H2 Logic is currently waiting to hear from the Danish Energy Agency whether the company will be given the funds to develop and install further hydrogen stations in Denmark and to produce several vehicles to go with them.

H2 Logic relies heavily on its ability to enter partnerships in order to be able to develop new hydrogen technology. H2 Logic’s overall goal to create a hydrogen-based transport infrastructure is a huge project requiring collaboration with the automotive, energy, construction and design industries, among others.

H2 Logic has therefore entered into a strategic partnership with a number of companies in Scandinavia, known collectively as the Scandinavian Hydrogen Highway Partnership. The main goal of the partnership is to see Scandinavia nominated as one of the three EU hydrogen test regions that will receive EU funding over the coming years.