Hydrogen as a transportation fuel has promise, but it will suffer from the same challenges as EVs – refueling infrastructure. The situation with fuels cells is even more acute because the technology remains nascent and unproven.
California is leading the way with numerous hydrogen initiatives. They also have by far the most “robust” hydrogen refueling infrastructure. And by robust I mean they have a total of 71 stations open and another 44 planned. That is to service a grand total of 12,000 hydrogen-powered vehicles which comprise a mere 1% of the state’s total of 1.1 million zero-emissions vehicles.
With Nikola Motors announcing the availability of its HYLA heavy-duty truck, refueling will be front and center. The challenge is a bit easier with freight if you assume geographically limited routes.
The company has entered into a partnership with Voltera to build up to 50 stations throughout North America in the next five years. Voltera’s business is in building EV charging and hydrogen fueling facilities, so the partnership makes sense.
However, the fact that the five-year goal is to build only 50 stations throughout all of North America is illustrative of how far hydrogen technology still needs to go to make a major impact in the zero-emissions vehicle market.