According to a study by Information Trends, over 56 thousand hydrogen-powered passenger cars would have been marketed worldwide by the end of 2022. Several automakers, both newcomers and established players, are competing to break into the fuel cell auto industry at the same time. More than 30,000 fuel cell vehicles were sold in the last two years, according to the study, Global Market for Hydrogen Fuel Cell Vehicles, 2023, indicating a considerable uptick in these vehicles’ sales. With the exception of California, the United States has been slow to adopt this technology, in part because of inaction at the federal level, according to study author Haani Kambrani. The pace of deployments, however, has quickened throughout Europe and Asia. According to Ms. Kambrani, the absence of hydrogen stations has been the only barrier to the adoption of these cars. In areas with a well-developed infrastructure for hydrogen fueling, these vehicles are selling quickly. Since Korea has the most extensive infrastructure for hydrogen fueling of any major market, more than half of the fuel cell vehicles that have been sold to date have been there, according to the expert. Japan and California, where there have been major hydrogen station deployments, are two other countries with significant fuel cell vehicle sales.
The report claims that the Hyundai Nexo has been the most successful fuel cell vehicle to date. Toyota’s Mirai is the only other vehicle that competes with Nexo on the market. Yet as the market takes off, more businesses are hopping on board. Honda is getting ready to re-enter this market, starting with the United States, where it will introduce a fuel cell car based on its Honda CR-V in 2024. In 2025, BMW will begin mass-producing and marketing hydrogen-powered passenger cars that were created in collaboration with Toyota. Renault and Jaguar Land Rover are two more notable firms that are in varying phases of exploring this market. A hydrogen fuel cell vehicle called the Scenic Vision has been unveiled by Renault as “part of a longer-term ambition, beyond 2030.” Jaguar Land Rover has created a hydrogen fuel cell vehicle prototype, but has not shared its release schedule. China is the nation where the most automakers are making headway into the fuel cell passenger vehicle market, though rollouts there have hardly gone beyond technical demonstrations thus far. Also, at least eight start-ups want to compete in this sector.
