Westport Gasoline Methods Inc. modified its identify to Aetherion Applied sciences Inc. on Thursday. The Vancouver, British Columbia, firm stated its subsequent push is bringing Cespira’s high-pressure direct injection (HPDI) gasoline system to North American long-haul fleets on compressed pure gasoline.
The rename follows Westport’s July 2025 sale of its light-duty enterprise to an funding automobile of Netherlands-based Heliaca Investments for a base value of $79.5 million. An organization model sheet ties the brand new identify to that divestiture and to the switch of the Westport identify.
Aetherion’s chief government stated the rename tells the market who the corporate is after a technique reset that narrowed what it really works on.
“The bread and butter is the unique basis of the corporate, the unique expertise, HPDI, excessive stress direct injection,” stated Dan Sceli, CEO of Aetherion, in an interview with BigRig. “That’s actually how it began and that’s the core that we wish to get again to specializing in and never making an attempt to do 20 issues half manner, however do a few issues rather well.”
The identify attracts on two Greek roots, in accordance with the corporate: aithēr, the clear air of the higher sky, and ion, that means movement or power.
Shareholders permitted a reputation change on the firm’s June 30 annual and particular assembly. The corporate expects its shares to commerce beneath the brand new identify on the Toronto Inventory Trade and Nasdaq, topic to last alternate approvals, on a date it has not introduced.
HPDI anchors the renamed firm
Philip Hill co-founded Westport in 1995 and invented HPDI, which retains the diesel engine and adjustments the gasoline it burns. HPDI is offered by means of Cespira, a three way partnership with Volvo Group launched in 2024. Aetherion owns 55% and Volvo owns 45%.
HPDI runs in additional than 12,000 vehicles worldwide, in accordance with the corporate. Cespira posted second-quarter income of $27.1 million, up 125% from $12 million a yr earlier, in accordance with Westport’s second-quarter administration’s dialogue and evaluation, dated Aug. 11.
The open query now, he stated, is how rapidly fleets change to pure gasoline for its secure pricing.
“There’s a number of locations for battery electrical and gasoline cells, however not on these long-haul truck fleets,” he stated.
HPDI also can run hydrogen and pure gasoline blends on the identical core expertise, Sceli stated. Most of hydrogen’s price is tied up in liquefying and transporting it, he stated, and it must get nearer to $5 an equal gallon to compete. He sees mixing hydrogen into current U.S. pure gasoline pipelines as a technique round that price.
“They’ve been doing it in Hawaii for 50 years,” he stated.
Hawaiʻi Fuel blends as much as 15% hydrogen into the artificial pure gasoline it makes at a plant inbuilt 1974 and distributes by pipeline on Oʻahu.
Cespira and Volvo signed a improvement settlement in June to run Volvo’s 13-liter engine on hydrogen by means of HPDI, with a European industrial launch focused earlier than 2030, in accordance with Westport’s second-quarter submitting.
CNG storage for North America
Cespira’s progress up to now has come on liquefied pure gasoline, Sceli stated. North America is the subsequent market, he stated, and its gasoline is compressed pure gasoline, with pipelines and infrastructure already in place.
Westport confirmed a CNG demonstration truck at ACT Expo in Could, a Volvo VNL 300 on a high-pressure storage system. The corporate reported greater than 600 miles of vary and as much as 10 miles per gallon equal on that truck. Sceli stated a variety of massive fleets have proven curiosity, and Volvo is working by means of its enterprise case for the system in North America. He informed BigRig in April that Environmental Safety Company certification is the first step towards commercialization.
Fleets need value stability on high of financial savings, Sceli stated.
“They wish to know that six months or 12 months down the highway, what their gasoline pricing goes to be,” he stated. “This volatility in diesel causes complications for all of those fleets and pricing and coping with short- and long-term contracts.”
Over the subsequent six to 12 months, Sceli stated, the 2 issues to look at are Cespira’s progress and the CNG system.
“Westport is bringing a brand new CNG storage system to mix it with HPDI for the North American market, as a result of the market is on the lookout for an alternate and we now have it,” he stated.
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