Dear all,

What does Opel have to do with the Corona Crisis? It’s Opel’s fault. Noooo, just kidding. Of course not.

Please read the company history of Opel on the internet. Some 120 years ago, Opel was the world market leader for sewing machines and bicycles. They also built some cars, but that was not the main business. In 1911, a fire destroyed the main sewing machine factory. Of course, that was a huge disaster, the company lost a lot of money, the employees couldn’t go to work, and people asked themselves “How can we get out of this situation?”

Opel decided not to build a new sewing machine factory (as a world market leader!) but to make the investments in a car factory and pursue this promising opportunity instead.

What does this have to do with Corona?

I see many parallels. Things get destroyed during the crisis. Supply chains, companies, whole industries. Maybe it’s time now to question some things completely. Do we really want to re-build everything in the same manner as before – or do we make investments in the long term future?

Last Monday there was a video conference with EU commissioners Frans Timmermans and Kadri Simson, the Moroccan energy minister Aziz Rabbah and 14 European CEOs from companies like EDF, Vattenfall, Siemens, Linde, ThyssenKrupp Industrial Solutions, Nel and Gasunie. It was lead by Jorgo Chatzimarkakis, Secretary General of Hydrogen Europe. The group discussed the question if the New Green Deal of the EU is dead now – or if we need it because of the crisis.

I am very proud that Mr. Chatzimarkakis will present the outcome of this very important meeting exclusively – and let me repeat that: exclusively and before the rest of the world – to you, the readers of this email blog today at 5 pm CET. The webinar will be organized by Mission Hydrogen. You can register for free here and we expect around 1k participants (Click!).

One company that has got the message is the American engine manufacturer Cummins. Cummins has acquired Hydrogenics a few months ago, a pioneering electrolyzer and fuel cell system manufacturer. In Europe, Hydrogenics is known e.g. for being the supplier of the fuel cell system to the world’s first hydrogen-powered train. And Hydrogenics and Cummins have decided yesterday to become a Silver Sponsor of the Webinar Series hosted by Mission Hydrogen. This makes us very happy, and we will help Cummins to get more leads than they can handle.

So if you need a fuel cell system or an electrolyzer, please contact Mark Kammerer (mkammerer@hydrogenics.com), not me. Mark will help you. 🙂

And again: The webinar will be very interesting. Of course, I do have some information already. “Sewing Machine” or “Car” – that’s the question. Tonight at 5 pm CET, you’ll get the answer. 🙂

Register for the webinar here (Click!).

Have a nice day
David

PS: If you’re sitting there like “Ok, got it. This email goes out to exactly 30,273 readers telling them that Cummins and Hydrogenics are good companies, and tonight another 1k people interested in hydrogen will get the same message again – of course, Mark will get RFQs. What do I have to do to generate revenue as well?” Very easy: Send an email to silke.frank@mission-hydrogen.de. Silke will explain you the options.