The French region Auvergne-Rhone-Alpes made the announcement today. This is a major order for at least 50 coaches. This represents a turning point for GCK, a French player in retrofit.

The Auvergne-Rhône-Alpes region is very interested in this new market. In October 2022, a retrofitted coach wearing the region’s colours was on display at the AutoCar Expo exhibition at the Lyon Eurexpo exhibition centre. Its distinctive feature was that it used French technology: a fuel cell from Symbio, fuel tanks from Forvia and a battery supplied by GCK. The latter also integrated the technologies on board the vehicle.

As a retrofit specialist, GCK had already worked with the Ginhoux* group on hydrogen-powered coaches. It then won an order from Dominique & B.E Green (read our article). More recently, GCK won a new contract to retrofit diesel coaches to hydrogen for Keolis. As part of the contract, it will even be testing the hydrogen engine on a coach.

Europe’s largest retrofit order for hydrogen coaches

As announced today, the Auvergne-Rhône-Alpes region has decided to trust GCK Mobility to retrofit 50 coaches to hydrogen. This is an unprecedented order on a European scale. The first stage will involve 16 coaches, worth €8.5 million. But the Region has already deliberated and voted the budget for the other coaches. Eventually, the contract could even reach a hundred coaches. GCK will convert these Iveco Crossway models in its Cournon workshops using a fuel cell.

The Group has also successfully passed all the UTAC** tests on this model. Road approval is therefore just a matter of days away, paving the way for a series production retrofit. And that would be a world first.

*France’s oldest public passenger transport company

**A privately-owned French group which carries out development and validation tests in its laboratories.

Article written by Laurent Meillaud and translated by Logan King