A petition ordering that Hydrogen Vehicle Systems (HVS), the Glasgow-based manufacturer of hydrogen trucks, is wound up and placed into liquidation has been lodged in court.

The notice was presented to the Court of Session in Edinburgh by Fablink (Northampton), a metal fabricator and hydraulic tanks supplier.

HVS has struggled recently, making a number of redundancies as it battled to secure funding and run a slimmer operation.

MD Ian Palmer left the company at the end of last month and appears to have been replaced by Abdul Waheed, the founder of HVS who had previously resigned in 2020.

Earlier this month, Motor Transport quoted a source as saying most staff had received termination notices with only some of the board members remaining, plus engineers.

A former employee said: “We were told that they had to terminate our contracts due to not meeting the funding required to keep us.

“I do believe they will bounce back once they get the funding they need.”

Since its launch, the company has received approximately £15m in taxpayer-funded grants for the development of a new hydrogen-powered truck.

In the summer, Explore Plant & Transport Solutions said it had signed a deal for HVS to build 30 hydrogen electric tractor units for its fleet.

Neither HVS nor Fablink responded to our approaches for comment.

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