A new study from IHS Automotive outlines many challenges faced by fuel cell vehicles (FCV) to reach mainstream usage. The study suggests that uptake could remain slow, and the window of opportunity for success could be limited, mostly due to the lack of supporting infrastructure and extremely high cost of building refuelling units, which currently stands at more than $3 million per hydrogen refuelling station. The study predicts that FCV production will reach 70k units a year by 2027, less than 0.1% of all vehicles expected to be produced globally. According to the co-author of the report, Ben Scott, electric FCVs have about 20-to-25 years to move past early adopters or they’ll remain in niche market status; “This could be a ‘now or never’ situation for FCEVs in mass market mobility,” said Scott.
A new study from IHS Automotive outlines many challenges faced by fuel cell vehicles (FCV) to reach mainstream usage. The study suggests that uptake could remain slow, and the window of opportunity for success could be limited, mostly due to the lack of supporting infrastructure and extremely high cost of building refuelling units, which currently stands at around $3m per hydrogen refuelling station. The study predicts that FCV production will reach 70k units a year by 2027, less than 0.1% of all vehicles expected to be produced globally. According to the co-author of the report, Ben Scott, electric FCVs have about 20-to-25 years to move past early adopters or they’ll remain in niche market status; “This could be a ‘now or never’ situation for FCEVs in mass market mobility,” said Scott.