With dwindling passenger car sales for hydrogen fuel cells, the technology is now looking like a non-starter for heavy-duty trucks as well.
In the first half of 2024, the global market for hydrogen fuel cell cars was just 5,621 units. In the same period, 4.5 million battery electric vehicles were sold. It’s clear that hydrogen isn’t winning for personal passenger transport. But many still hold out that hydrogen is the way forward for larger vehicles, particularly trucks. I talked to Mike Nakrani, CEO of VEV, an e-fleet solutions provider backed by Vitol, about why even for trucks, hydrogen won’t be the right solution.
“We saw that battery electric was winning the race for passenger vehicles in China,” says Nakrani. “We are starting to see some of the Chinese products come over here in Europe.”to compete with Tesla’s Model Y. “We used to think that battery electric was only going to be for a city car, but suddenly it has migrated into a medium-sized family car and then into an SUV. Now you're seeing the Ford E-transit come out with a larger battery and much better range than the original.
There’s another difficulty as well. “The third point is transport,” says Nakrani. “Because of those expensive storage solutions and the requirement of compression, getting it from point A to point B with a cost structure that could have a hope of being competitive is incredibly difficult. The truck OEMs have recognized this, which is why, if you talk to anybody senior in the truck market, they will all say there is a place that hydrogen may play, but it will be very limited.
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