FirstElement Fuel

FirstElement Fuel (FEF) develops and builds hydrogen refueling stations. The company is the developer, owner, and operator of the True Zero Hydrogen network in collaboration with the State of California, Honda, and Toyota, reportedly the largest retail hydrogen network in the world.

Key customers and partnerships

In December 2023, FEF was named an authorized Nikola Fueling Solutions Partner, and entered into a ten-year agreement with Nikola Corporation to refuel Nikola’s hydrogen fuel cell electric trucks at its hydrogen refueling station in California. The station is expected to have a fueling capacity of ~200 trucks per day, and will reportedly feature the world’s first H70 fast-fill lane for efficient hydrogen refueling of heavy-duty trucks.

In May 2023, the company partnered with Quantron US, a subsidiary of Quantron AG, a German developer of electric and hydrogen commercial vehicles, to provide its customers with access to FirstElement Fuel's hydrogen stations.

In March 2023, the company entered into a strategic collaboration with Hyundai Motor Company to fuel and test hydrogen refueling of Hyundai’s Class 8 fuel cell electric trucks in California. The two companies planned to launch the world’s largest commercial deployment of hydrogen-powered Class 8 fuel cell trucks in California in 2023. In addition, FEF, in partnership with Taylor-Wharton and Nikkiso, deployed its mobile fueling station with a fueling capacity of 125 kg per hour.

In May 2022, FEF partnered with Mitsui & Co. to develop a hydrogen refueling infrastructure in the Nordic countries by building a network of hydrogen refueling stations capable of refueling 100,000 hydrogen-powered vehicles across the region.

Funding and financials

The company’s latest funding was in August 2023, when it was awarded a USD 7.7 million grant through the California Energy Commission's Zero-Emission Transportation Manufacturing competitive grant solicitation. The funding was used to expand the annual production of liquid hydrogen pumps at FEF's California manufacturing facility by a factor of 10. Previously, in November 2021, the company raised USD 105 million in a Series D funding round. The round was led by Air Water, MUFG, Nikkiso, and Japan Infrastructure Initiate. The funds were used to deploy 31–80 hydrogen stations by 2024 to refuel heavy-duty trucks and light-duty cars.