Eric Baleviez is the Commercial and Services Director at Safra. After 30 years of experience in urban mobility, first as a user (operator) and then as an electric vehicle manufacturer, Eric decided to join the hydrogen sector at Safra.

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Safra was founded in 1955: how did the company start building hydrogen buses?

Originally, Safra was a bodywork company that gradually shifted towards vehicle renovation. The desire to extend the lifespan of vehicles has been part of the company's DNA since the beginning.

In 2011, the current President, who was then an engineer, Vincent Lemaire, decided to embark on the great adventure of building electric and then hydrogen buses. After an initial Businova, which was very groundbreaking for its time, they switched to "bus start-up" mode to design and build vehicles that meet high standards in terms of safety, performance, equipment, and certification.

Today, they have also integrated Retrofit activity into their range. It was a logical progression to combine their expertise in renovation and hydrogen innovation.

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Do you have a small anecdote to share about Safra's history?

Our first hydrogen Businova was designed by only about ten people! It was the starting point of the great story that we writing now.

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What is your greatest victory?

Today, there are about 20,000 buses running in France. Among them, 35 run on hydrogen, including 23 from Safra. It's a great source of pride!

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Peter Parker became Spiderman because of a radioactive spider bite. What got you into hydrogen?

Throughout my career, I realized that the way hydrogen vehicles are manufactured and sold needs to be revised to reduce their cost of ownership. A hydrogen vehicle costs more to buy than a diesel vehicle, but in the long run, you can play with technical elements or operating methods to reduce overall costs.

That's how I switched to the manufacturing side.

And then, I fell in love with Safra's story, a French, human-sized company with a strong desire to invigorate our territories. We are actually the only 100% French player since we carry out studies, design, and construction in France (we even use a French fuel cell).

Finally, I work with passionate people of all ages and experiences, which is very stimulating!

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Batman has his Joker, Peter Pan has Captain Hook... what do you fight against daily?

When you get into hydrogen, you often face many obstacles, whether they be financial or regulatory, for example, but also mentalities that are still skeptical about this energy vector. It's a daily struggle to move forward, step by step.

I also fight against an aging industrial environment, very routine, and full of historical rules.

With Safra and generally all hydrogen players, we try to shake things up! That's what drives us!

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Is hydrogen the future?

Hydrogen should be part of a mix and combined with other forms of mobility, such as electric, for example. Hydrogen won't solve all problems, but it's an essential key to the ecological transition, yes.

When I see how fast we are moving forward every day at Safra, I am hopeful that we will leave a great legacy of what we are building in 50 years. We have already laid the foundations, and the outlines of the puzzle, now we just have to put the pieces in the middle.

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In your opinion, why is hydrogen so topical?

I think hydrogen contributes to addressing the major challenges of our time:

• The ecological crisis, if the hydrogen produced is 100% green
• Territorial economic development (we will soon have 300 employees at Safra)
• Geopolitical challenges: hydrogen allows France to move towards energy independence
• Societal challenges: hydrogen helps to reduce diseases related to air pollution

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Do you have 2 pieces of advice to give to those considering switching to hydrogen?

My first piece of advice is to evaluate whether hydrogen is really the right solution for your problem. For example, in passenger transport, it could be the perfect solution if you want to transport more people over longer distances.

My second piece of advice is to think in terms of an ecosystem. For example, if you want to switch to hydrogen and know that your product and service ranges will expand, then take advantage of that by converting other vehicles to hydrogen as well. This could include light utility vehicles. This allows you to use the production station for multiple purposes.

Every hero has an extraordinary story – this is that of Elisabeth Ausimour, President of the Products division at Manitou Group, which added the “hydrogen” string to its bow two years ago.

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What is your role today at Manitou?

I am in charge of all products developed by the Group (telehandlers, aerial work platforms, forklifts, loaders...). We naturally have a large diesel range, but we have very strong ambitions for electric and, since two years ago, hydrogen is now also part of our strategy to offer a complete zero-emissions range.

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Peter Parker became Spiderman after a bite by a radioactive spider; what bit you with hydrogen?

It was our very strong CSR commitments that put us on the hydrogen trail. Under this policy, switching our transmission systems to electric and hydrogen have become priorities for us. We see hydrogen as an incredible opportunity, as this energy carrier offers an answer to two performance issues for our machines and handling vehicles – that of power and range.For me, what is also really interesting with this energy is the systemic approach that can be developed around it. We can be green and virtuous from end to end and act locally. Lhyfe produces green and renewable hydrogen, our customers use it locally and the only vehicle emissions are water! This is how we are working today near the first production site in Bouin with our first prototype hydrogen-powered telehandler.

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What is your goal where hydrogen is concerned?

At Manitou Group, the aim is for over 40% of products sold to be zero emission in 2030. We are already well on our way to achieving our ambition, as in 2022, the share of zero-emission vehicles already accounted for more than 10% of our sales.With hydrogen, we will be focusing in particular on offering relevant solutions to the construction market. As soon as it becomes law to have a certain share of electric vehicles in towns and cities, I can quickly see residents wanting greener and quieter construction sites. The advantage is that, with hydrogen, the combination of power and range will be real strengths for site operators.  Personally, I am convinced that hydrogen is the cleanest energy possible! But I still need to convince a lot of people... And we also need to explain that not all uses can be covered by hydrogen. For example, farmers will perhaps turn first to biofuels as it will be difficult to access hydrogen in rural areas at the beginning.

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Batman has the Joker, Peter Pan has Captain Hook … what are you fighting against day-to-day?

We are fighting a battle against time – we must progress quickly towards this energy transition. We want to be pioneers but the technologies are not always ready and customers aren’t either. It is a real challenge as we are trying to introduce these offerings quickly with all of the hydrogen ecosystem (vehicles + stations + H20), even though the technologies are not market-ready today.  

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Why is your business a pioneer in its field?

Being a pioneer has been somewhat in our culture since the company was founded 60 years ago. We invented the first masted forklift and then we invented the telehandler. We were also the first Toyota distributors in Europe and we have had a CSR policy for 13 years already, which has won us several awards.

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If you had a super power, what would it be?

I would make two wishes to make hydrogen more accessible:* For the distribution network to be accessible to all – that is really the challenge if we want to bring green hydrogen to our machines and our clients.* To make the technology cheaper. I know that the CEA is researching the topic but you have to face the fact that today hydrogen is not yet a mass market and the products are expensive even though we would like it to be available to all.

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In conclusion?

I think that hydrogen is one of the major transformations of our industrial era. A change is taking place that we absolutely must not miss and that is why we are investing enormously. And I am very proud to be writing this new chapter with my teams!

Every hero has an extraordinary story – this is that of Thibault Léonard, an Engineer and Hydrogen Project Manager at Moviatech who has been in hydrogen since the start of his career.  

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Why did you become involved with hydrogen?

As a car enthusiast, I did my studies at an automotive engineering school and specialised in new energies and the environment. Then, two years ago, I began my career at Moviatech on a hydrogen project.

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Peter Parker became Spiderman after a bite by a radioactive spider; what bit you with hydrogen?

My encounter with Moviatech. And particularly with Sylvain Jourdy, Moviatech’s CEO, who presented his project to me – it was his vision that inspired me!I was familiar with hydrogen, of course, and the prospects that this new technology was opening up for mobility. The internal combustion engine has reached its limits in terms of environmental acceptability. There are also battery electric vehicles, but if we want to reduce the carbon footprint of transportation, we must look to hydrogen.What interested me at Moviatech was the user-focused approach, doing whatever is necessary to facilitate uptake and lift barriers, which will enable hydrogen to be used by all.  

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Batman has the Joker, Zorro has Sgt. Garcia … what are you fighting against?

The preconceived ideas and barriers associated with hydrogen. I try to spread the word and convey what I believe – hydrogen is usable as of now! Projects are underway; it is operational – we proved it by touring France in a hydrogen car in 2020.Some people don’t even know that hydrogen vehicles are already on the roads!Moviatech is therefore trying to do everything it can in terms of education, as the technology is still relatively unknown. You have to re-explain that the vehicles are electric, that hydrogen is stored as a gas, that it isn’t dangerous...  

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Is hydrogen the future?

Moviatech is convinced that it is a solution of the future, for certain uses: heavy vehicles, long-distance journeys, ...The most important thing is really that the hydrogen be as green as possible, because the ultimate achievement is of course to use carbon-free hydrogen.

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Why is your business a pioneer in its field?

At Moviatech, we want to make life as easy as possible for hydrogen vehicle users and remove the constraints that can be involved in driving these vehicles. Hydrogen vehicles reproduce all the advantages of combustion engine vehicles (range, refuelling time) and battery electric vehicles (quiet, clean) but we must still simplify all the logistics involved in refuelling them.

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As a car enthusiast, what hydrogen-related event would you be most excited to see?

In endurance car racing, we are already seeing great initiatives. Green GT is racing a hydrogen vehicle in the 24 Hours of Le Mans. GCK is going to take part in the Dakar Ralley with a hydrogen vehicle.To see a specialist race with exclusively hydrogen vehicles would be a really fantastic step.