(News Bulletin 247) – In great difficulty, the specialist in hydrogen vehicles announces degraded 2022 accounts. Hopium takes advantage of this publication to take stock of its situation and no more timetable is advanced for the release of the Machina.

The past financial year has been strewn with pitfalls for Hopium. At the origin of the Machina, a high-end French hydrogen car, the young company founded by former racing driver Olivier Lombard has published highly degraded 2022 accounts. The start-up is struggling to bring out its hydrogen car project for individuals. And the accounts presented on Saturday testify to the difficulties of the designer of the Machina who had nevertheless caught the eye of Crédit Agricole Consumer at the end of the last Paris Motor Show, in October 2022.

Since this big spotlight, the situation has deteriorated violently for Hopium. Operating expenses have indeed taken a worrying trajectory to jump from 9.4 million euros in 2021 to 24.9 million euros last year. The group explains this slippage by a sharp increase in personnel costs, which soared 309.6% to 13.5 million euros.

Besides, “other purchases and external expenses” doubled to stand at 9.6 million euros for the 2022 financial year, compared to 4.3 million euros in 2021. These expenses include the development of prototypes of the Hopium Machina, integrating the creation of the concept car, the structuring of the company and the search for financing.

The operating result for the financial year thus amounts to -20.9 million euros, taking into account the explosion of the expenses described a little above. And the bottom of the income statement doesn’t look too good either. Over the past year, the company has widened its losses a little further to 23.8 million euros last year, against an already negative net result of 8 million in 2021.

Where the shoe pinches is that Hopium has still not generated the slightest euro in turnover. The first sales of its Machina are not expected until 2025. In the meantime, the company will have to finance the construction of its factory which will be able to produce 20,000 vehicles per year.

Financial difficulties

Hopium spends a lot and doesn’t get any money into the coffers. The company’s balance sheet bears witness to the difficulties encountered by Hopium. As of December 31, 2022, the group posted negative equity of €10.4 million and cash of -€1.3 million, compared to €9.3 million and €4.9 million respectively. for the previous year.

The boxes are therefore empty for Hopium. To stay afloat, the company will draw on its line of financing in convertible bonds which was concluded with the company Atlas. This represents a maximum financing capacity of 11.1 million euros, an amount which takes into account previous drawdowns. Its use remains subject to an exemption from Atlas concerning the contractual clause relating to the amount of market capitalization. Hopium warns that it intends to proceed “very soon” with a fourth and then a fifth draw which would allow the company to have financing until the end of August 2023.

Among the other sources of financing available to Hopium, last February the company obtained aid of 2 million euros from the Normandy Region as well as a line of financing for a maximum gross amount of 50 million euros. euros concluded with the company LDA. The company does not intend to mobilize this line of financing “given the cumulative dilutive effect and the incompatibility of the drawdowns with the Atlas line”.

“An adjustment of the charge structure”

A sign that times are tough for Hopium, the company has set itself the task for 2023 of adjusting its cost structure. It has already operated a slimming cure in its workforce. After having doubled down on its recruitments, the young company will part with around thirty employees as part of a collective contractual break, to reduce its workforce to a level of between 90 and 100 people at the end of last April.

So to put fuel back into the engine, Hopium announced in early April a new roadmap devoting its strategic refocusing on the development of its fuel cell. The company has thus planned to organize its activities around two poles: Hopium Technologies, which develops the fuel cell for the professional market, and Hopium Automotive, whose vocation is to develop a range of hydrogen vehicles for the general public, including the Hopium Machina.

With this two-headed organization, the start-up intends to generate its first income from 2025, with the launch of a pre-marketing of its battery-powered system from 2024 in parallel with its industrialization, and to begin the marketing phase in 2025.

For its part, the development of the Machina is not abandoned. It’s just been muted but the company is no longer committing to a release date, as Hopium was planning to release it in 2025.” However, given ongoing discussions with various partners, and the options and optimizations that may arise from this, the company will present the final timetable for the release of the Machina model after these discussions are concluded,” explains Hopium.

Nothing has been won yet and Hopium still has some way to go before generating its first income with its fuel cell. The deployment of this new roadmap will however be conditional on the outcome of the discussions which are currently underway with partners “capable of supporting” the company and the results of which will be communicated to the market “as soon as possible”.

The title of the French specialist in high-end hydrogen vehicles for individuals jumped, taking more than 16% to 1.80 euro around 5:00 p.m. Over the whole of 2023, the value nevertheless remains down by around 73%, with a low recorded at 1.42 euros at the end of the week last week.