The failure of novel expertise in real-world settings will not be remarkable. However for the hydrogen automobile trade, it got here at one of many worst occasions: In 2019, California was investing closely in hydrogen refueling infrastructure, attracting world automakers and oil and fuel majors to the state.
On the time, Toyota was pushing for extra fueling infrastructure to assist the uptake of the Toyota Mirai, one of many earliest light-duty shopper hydrogen fuel-cell automobiles to hit the market.
So Toyota partnered with each Iwatani and oil main Shell to construct extra fueling stations. Shell introduced on Nel because the station supplier, and each Iwatani and Chevron partnered with Nel quickly after. Representatives from Shell and Iwatani didn’t reply to requests for remark.
Lewis Fulton, director of the Power Futures Program on the College of California, Davis, says the tools failures within the passenger section have led to a “close to collapse of the system” in California. Along with the deserted Iwatani stations, Shell in February utterly shut down its seven California hydrogen refueling stations and canceled plans to construct 48 stations within the state.
Chevron had contracted Nel to create 16 stations, however didn’t present a response on the standing of these stations. The extent to which Nel offered the expertise for these main gamers has not been beforehand reported on.
In the meantime, Toyota, which has since deprioritized the California marketplace for the Mirai, is dealing with a category motion lawsuit from many drivers who already purchased the hydrogen-powered car. The lawsuit claims that, opposite to Toyota’s guarantees, hydrogen gasoline for his or her automobiles is turning into harder to acquire, making the Mirai “unsafe, unreliable, and inoperable.” Toyota didn’t reply to a request for remark.
In response to the Hydrogen Gas Cell Partnership, there are 55 hydrogen fueling stations in California, however lots of them expertise frequent downtime. Not one of the hydrogen fueling stations offered by Nel are presently working. Iwatani’s solely functioning refueling stations had been constructed by Linde, a big industrial fuel firm.
Within the meantime, Fulton says California has pivoted to constructing infrastructure for heavy-duty automobiles like vans and buses, with the hope that the passenger market can reboot with the assistance of a rising freight market.
By specializing in the heavy-duty market, California can, in idea, create a stronger provide of fresh hydrogen that brings prices down and will increase availability, says Fulton, who can also be an adviser to Arches, the California hydrogen hub that has received $1.2 billion of conditional funding from the US Division of Power.
