Hydrogen gasoline cell automobiles (aka FCV or FCEV), another zero-emission answer to battery-electric automobiles (BEV), stay mainly absent in america and even in California (the one state with two series-produced fashions out there), gross sales are lowering.
In keeping with the Hydrogen Gasoline Cell Partnership’s knowledge, in the course of the first quarter of 2023, 725 new hydrogen gasoline cell automobiles had been bought within the US, which is nearly 30 p.c lower than a 12 months in the past.
The Hydrogen Gasoline Cell Partnership’s FCVs gross sales knowledge comes from Baum and Associates. “Gross sales knowledge is predicated on automotive gross sales bought by a seller to a retail or fleet buyer”.
This quantity is marginal in comparison with the full quantity of some 3.7 million models, in the course of the interval, and even all-electric automobiles, which famous some 257,507 registrations (up 63 p.c year-over-year). In California alone, there have been some 87,525 new BEVs and 16,470 PHEVs in Q1.
The one optimistic information is that the result’s on par with the fourth quarter of 2022 (720 models), however that is actually nothing important, contemplating over 1,000 models bought within the first quarter within the two earlier years.
So far as we all know, there are solely two hydrogen gasoline cell fashions out there in California – the Toyota Mirai and Hyundai Nexo (the Honda Readability Gasoline Cell exited some time in the past).
In keeping with the producers, some 668 Toyota Mirai had been bought final quarter and 65 Hyundai Nexo (each had been down year-over-year). These numbers don’t essentially examine 1:1 with the seller gross sales, reported by the Hydrogen Gasoline Cell Partnership.
As we are able to see beneath, a lot of the weight (over 90 p.c of the amount) is carried by Toyota.
Gross sales in Q1 2023:
Toyota Mirai – 668 (down 7%) Hyundai Nexo – 65 (down 61%) Whole: 725 (down 30%)
* Mirai and Nexo gross sales as reported by the producers
![external_image](https://cdn.motor1.com/images/custom/thumbnail/hydrogen-fuel-cell-vehicle-sales-in-the-us-q4-2023.png)
For reference, in 2022 FCEV gross sales exceeded 2,707 (down 19 p.c year-over-year).
Gross sales in 2022:
Toyota Mirai – 2,094 (down 20%) Hyundai Nexo – 408 (down 5%) Whole: 2,707 (down 19%)
* Mirai and Nexo gross sales as reported by the producers
![external_image](https://cdn.motor1.com/images/custom/thumbnail/hydrogen-fuel-cell-vehicle-sales-in-the-us-q4-2023-b.png)
It is tough to say whether or not there’s any hope for hydrogen gasoline cell automobiles sooner or later as battery-electric automobiles are rising quickly, taking a much bigger and greater share out of the full quantity (at present some seven p.c within the US).
One thing must change – decrease costs, higher refueling infrastructure, or new, extra aggressive fashions, however we do not know whether or not something new is coming to the market proper now.
The potential seems to be very restricted and the query is who would now make investments billions to noticeably enter the hydrogen area of interest?
Anyway, the general cumulative gross sales of FCVs exceeded 15,700 as of the tip of March (not counting autos faraway from use), which is eighteen p.c greater than a 12 months in the past. This quantity consists of over 12,000 Toyota Mirai.
![external_image](https://cdn.motor1.com/images/custom/thumbnail/hydrogen-fuel-cell-vehicle-sales-in-the-us-q4-2022-c.png)
As of Might 22, 2022, the variety of open retail hydrogen stations in California stood at 58 (5 greater than in December):
Open – Retail: 58 Open – Legacy Retail: 0 Presently Unavailable: 6 In Development: 7 In Allowing: 23 Proposed: 7 On maintain: 5 Whole (Mild Obligation): 106
See the complete record of hydrogen infrastructure right here.
A fast calculation reveals that there are over 270 automobiles per single station (cumulative gross sales divided by the variety of open retail stations). Though, it is likely to be much less if a few of the early automobiles have been faraway from service.