REBELGROUP ADVISORY BV

Their core work

RebelGroup Advisory is a Rotterdam-based consultancy that provides advisory, project management, and stakeholder engagement services in the clean transport and energy transition space. Their H2020 track record is entirely built around the JIVE program — the EU's flagship demonstration initiative for hydrogen fuel cell buses — where they served as a participating advisory partner across two consecutive projects. As a private advisory firm (not an operator or manufacturer), their likely contribution sits at the planning, communications, and implementation-support layer: helping transit authorities, city governments, and infrastructure providers make the case for and execute zero-emission bus deployments. Their sustained involvement across both JIVE phases, running from 2017 through 2025, points to a narrow but consistent specialization in hydrogen mobility advisory services.

What they specialise in

How they've shifted over time

RebelGroup's H2020 profile shows no real evolution in technical focus — both projects carry identical keywords and belong to the same program family. What can be observed is a deepening commitment: starting with JIVE in 2017 and continuing into JIVE 2 in 2018, with the second project running all the way to 2025, suggests they moved from initial engagement to long-term program partnership in hydrogen bus deployment. The absence of any divergence into adjacent areas (electromobility, grid hydrogen, stationary fuel cells) suggests this is either a very deliberate niche or the full extent of their EU-funded activity.

Their consistent presence across both JIVE phases through 2025 signals ongoing relevance in hydrogen bus roll-out advisory, making them a plausible partner for follow-on European hydrogen mobility programs such as those under Horizon Europe's Clean Hydrogen Partnership.

How they like to work

RebelGroup has never coordinated an H2020 project — they join as a participant in large, multi-country consortia. The JIVE programs are among the largest hydrogen bus demonstration consortia in Europe, with dozens of partners spanning transit operators, bus manufacturers, hydrogen suppliers, and city authorities. This pattern suggests RebelGroup brings specialist advisory capacity to established consortia rather than originating projects, meaning they are most valuable when sought out by a consortium leader who needs their specific expertise.

RebelGroup has built connections with 53 unique consortium partners across 15 countries, entirely through the JIVE program — a surprisingly broad network for just two projects, reflecting the scale and European spread of hydrogen bus demonstration activities. Their partners likely include major transit authorities, hydrogen infrastructure providers, and city governments across Northern and Western Europe.

What sets them apart

RebelGroup's positioning is defined by depth rather than breadth: they are one of the few private advisory firms with a continuous eight-year track record specifically in hydrogen fuel cell bus deployment at the EU program level. For a consortium building a hydrogen mobility project that needs credible advisory and stakeholder engagement capacity — particularly in the Netherlands or Northern Europe — this sustained JIVE involvement is a meaningful credential. The caveat is that their publicly visible EU footprint is narrow, so their full capabilities beyond these two projects are not visible from this data alone.

Highlights from their portfolio

• JIVE 2
  The larger and longer of the two phases (running to 2025), this is where RebelGroup received their EC funding of EUR 115,625 and deepened their advisory role in deploying hydrogen fuel cell buses across multiple European cities.
• JIVE
  The original Joint Initiative for hydrogen Vehicles across Europe established RebelGroup's entry into EU hydrogen mobility projects in 2017, connecting them to a continent-wide consortium of transit operators and hydrogen suppliers.