Joe Finnerty

Moves to make hydrogenpowered vehicles more accessible are welcome

HYDROGEN remains a niche fuel, with just three cars – the Toyota Mirai, Hyundai ix35 FCEV and Honda FCX Clarity – on the market, and selling in small numbers.

That could change soon, with more manufacturers such as Kia making strides to provide a fuel-cell vehicle, and an increased desire to move to alternative fuels in a bid to cut emissions from policymakers.

Yet despite the slowly growing popularity and positives of hydrogen cars (they promise longer ranges than battery electrics and no need to stop for long periods to charge), there are current obstacles to be overcome.

We spent a week with a hydrogenpowered ix35 earlier in the year (Issue 1,407), and found one of the biggest problems is the lack of infrastructure. Fuelling stations are few and far between, giving you range anxiety like no other. There’s also the cost.

Hydrogen is expensive at the moment, plus there’s a shortage of trained technicians to service and repair your car should something with the modern tech go wrong. We’ve reported before how less than half a per cent of mechanics are trained to work on EVS, and the figure for hydrogen is likely to be even lower.

Hydrogen advocates are aware of these shortfalls, though, and are investing to resolve them. Toyota has launched specialist service centres for the Mirai in London, Swindon, Sheffield, Swansea and Aberdeen, and hydrogen specialist ITM Power has opened up a new public refuelling site in east London. So it’s clear that the desire is there to make hydrogen a success. Perhaps it could soon be the right time to invest in the future.

“Hydrogen stations are few and far between, giving you range anxiety like no other”