High on Hopium
There is no shortage of new brands that come with an electric car with a battery pack, but today we can welcome a different kind of newcomer. The Hopium Machina is a hydrogen sedan with impressive performance. Moreover, Hopium does not come from Asia or California, but from France.
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Do not expect too much concrete information at this point. The Hopium Machina is still somewhat shrouded in mystery on the enclosed computer animations and that is also true figuratively. Fortunately there are our French colleagues from AutoPlus, who are kind enough to glean some information from Hopium.
500 pk, 1,000 km
The Machina is a luxury sedan with fairly sporty proportions, not least because of its gigantic wheels. Underneath the smooth body is – at least in theory – a powertrain with a fuel cell, good for about 500 hp of power. The range must end at around 1,000 km, after which ‘charging’ at the correct petrol station must be completed in three minutes.
Anyone who still finds the Machina a bit unrealistic is not surprising. Details such as the striking, but not very functional-looking light clusters show that this is still really a concept car. A physical version of that concept car would appear in 2021, but we will reportedly have to wait until 2026 for the production version.
The Tesla of the hydrogen
Hopium has great ambitions and aims to achieve a turnover of 1 billion euros by 2030. It seems that Hopium wants to become to hydrogen cars what Tesla is to EVs. Nevertheless, the brand is taking a bold step, because of large and traditional car manufacturers seem to see less and less benefit in the use of hydrogen for passenger cars. Hyundai at Toyota are traditionally the exceptions, but otherwise there seems to be an increasing focus on the so-called BEV (Battery Electric Vehicle). Who is ultimately right will have to prove in the future.
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