Glasgow-based Hydrogen Vehicle Systems (HVS), which manufactures hydrogen trucks, has made a swathe of redundancies as it battles to secure additional funding.
The start-up has scaled back operations and made several redundancies, as it works to secure additional investment, MT’s sister magazine Freight Carbon Zero has learnt.
Managing director Ian Palmer has also left the company, with the termination of his directorship listed as 21 October in Companies House records.
According to sources HVS is not closing its doors but is just running ”slimmer operations” until it completes its financing round, which it hopes will be “in the coming weeks”.
A former senior employee said: “There are three very serious funders looking in detail at HVS at the moment.”
Employees received termination notices on 17 October with one source saying “most of the staff were issued with termination notices with their final leaving date on 31 October. Only some of the board members remain and some engineers have been kept on.”
“We were told that they had to terminate our contracts due to not meeting the funding required to keep us,” another former employee said. “I do believe they will bounce back once they get the funding they need.”
HVS was founded in 2017 by tech entrepreneur Abdul Waheed. Since launch, the company has received approximately £15m in taxpayer-funded grants for the development of a new hydrogen-powered truck.
Under executive chairman Jawad Khursheed’s leadership, HVS has achieved several milestones, including securing its first patent and completing an Innovate UK funded feasibility study.
The company has also won a second grant to develop a hydrogen-powered ambulance and has built relationships with suppliers and potential end-users, with customer trials of HVS vehicles due to commence from 2025.
Companies that have signed up to trials include Explore Plant & Transport Solutions and Worcestershire-based haulier White Logistics, with both signing agreements with HVS in April this year.
In the same month HVS reached a major milestone with the start of prototype manufacturing at a specialist build facility in Silverstone, Northamptonshire.
