'Hydrogen car sales are so low that we are unable to make long-term forecasts': BloombergNEF
FCEVs represented 0.02% of global passenger vehicle sales in 2022, research house says
Sales of hydrogen-powered fuel-cell electric vehicles (FCEVs) are so low that BloombergNEF says it cannot make any long-term projections after their future, the research house says in a new report.
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“We are not able to make a long-term outlook for passenger FCVs while sales are so low, show limited momentum, and are highly concentrated in a few markets and models.”
Sales of passenger FCEVs fell globally last year compared to 2021, with a huge fall in Japan — from 2,440 vehicles to just 844 in 2022.
Aside from a few bullish automakers, most researchers and experts believe it is unlikely that hydrogen cars will ever enter the mainstream, mainly because they will be more expensive to buy, maintain and run than battery EVs, with their only upsides being the shorter charging time and potentially longer ranges
This is partly why hydrogen trucks and buses are widely believed to have a brighter future, especially in use cases requiring short charging times and long distances.
The cost of hydrogen trucks is due to decline this decade “but uncertainty on their trajectory is high”, says the BNEF report.
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