Hydrogen Fuel Cell Car Sales In U.S. Just 2,300 In 2018

The FCVs were left behind by plug-ins

We were promised by some Asian manufacturers that hydrogen fuel cell cars are the future, but as we check the numbers for 2018, it seems that sales are not only meaningless, but also haven’t changed much over the year.

The total volume seems to be above 2,300, similar to 2017, which is not even 1% of the number noted by plug-in electric cars (361,307).

The most “popular” FCV – the Toyota Mirai noted 1,700 deliveries, which is 7.5% less than a year earlier.



Toyota Mirai – 1,700 (down 7.5% from 1,838)

Honda Clarity Fuel Cell – 624 (up from 431 a year ago, according to our estimations)

Hyundai NEXO – 8 (first was delivered in December)

Hyundai Tucson Fuel Cell – no data

Total: about 2,332 (vs. 2,269)



With the Hyundai NEXO on the market, sales sure can go up, but the plug-ins will be so far ahead that we can’t imagine how FCVs will ever catch up.

This article originally appeared on Inside EVs.

 

[Brando]

FUEL CELL for vehicles = FOOL'S CELL
Most any moron can look at the economics and it is just so so obvious.

Would love for some Tesla owner to "interview" one of these fuel cell owners, trade rides and both of them comment on how they compare.

side note: CARB - gives hydrogen fuel cars ~12 ZEV credits?? and BEV only get ~5 ??
I could not verify these numbers - SO, could some one who has figured out how these credits are calculated could give us all accurate numbers. Sorry as my memory of these ZEV credits are probably off.

 

[Ande]

Fuel cells have some impressive advantages of you like high maintenance costs or components that need regular service/replacement.

Spending a lot of electric energy to make hydrogen, then getting even less of that hydrogen energy covered to motion, is inexcusable stupid.

 

[dpeilow]

About 2 day's output for Tesla now...

 

[Toumal]

People who think you need to turn off the radio (sic) in a Tesla to save energy can tell you all about why BEVs will never catch on and the future is hydrogen.
On the german forum "goingelectric" there's a user who has been shilling for this technology for years now, claiming things like hydrogen production will become much more energy efficient any day now, that home storage is super easy, etc.

 

[ItsNotAboutTheMoney]

By The Numbers | California Fuel Cell Partnership

Enjoy.

I never say never with technology. But, the infrastructure dependency makes it an all or nothing. Either it becomes cheap and succeeds or it doesn't and it fails. It's just pointless to push it.

 

[Toumal]

I never say never with technology.

Agreed. However in this particular case it sounds like someone is trying to keep people from charging at home so they have to keep going to a "gas station" to fill up. Generating H2 at scale at home is both unrealistic and inefficient, so nobody will do that.

Mikeselectricstuff did a nice teardown of one of those H2 power banks and he came to the conclusion that this makes no sense given that you can get a LiXX power bank that you can charge at home for next to nothing, instead of a) having to buy an H2 home recharge station for $500, or b) having to go to the gas station, which conveniently is one of the places where you can get those H2 replacement cells.

Hmmmmm... I wonder why.

(Key point at 54:00)

 

[Merrill]

To me this technology is stupid and similar to nuclear, expensive and can you fill up at home.

 

[RolfB]

Isn’t it this simple? Hydrogen is “manufactured” using electricity. Why not using that electricity to power a car directly? Let’s keep it simple!

 

[Saghost]

FUEL CELL for vehicles = FOOL'S CELL
Most any moron can look at the economics and it is just so so obvious.

Would love for some Tesla owner to "interview" one of these fuel cell owners, trade rides and both of them comment on how they compare.

side note: CARB - gives hydrogen fuel cars ~12 ZEV credits?? and BEV only get ~5 ??
I could not verify these numbers - SO, could some one who has figured out how these credits are calculated could give us all accurate numbers. Sorry as my memory of these ZEV credits are probably off.

I think that insanity just changed. Up through the 2017 model year, a hydrogen fuel cell car with a three hundred mile range could easily get 9 credits, while a BEV of the same range would have to prove an active battery swap program was in use to get the same; the rules heavily emphasized the fast charging aspect and EVs with a two hundred mile or greater range were capped at 4 credits unless they could get 285 miles charge in fifteen minutes. Compare the charts on page 13 and 16.

https://www.arb.ca.gov/msprog/zevprog/zevregs/1962.1_Clean.pdf

However, they created new rules for 2018 and up, and those appear to have done away with all the complicated classes and any credit for fast charging - it looks like for all zero emissions cars it is now UDDS range divided by one hundred plus .5, capped at 4 credits per car. See page 7:

https://www.arb.ca.gov/msprog/zevprog/zevregs/1962.2_Clean.pdf

So the insanity that was pushing fuel cell cars over electric cars in California might be over, I think.

 

[Brando]

@Saghost Thanks for your informative post - at least a great attempt.

Why have people lost faith in our governments?
Clean air the goal [CARB], promote ZEV [Zero Emission Vehicles] takes 22 pages and no numbers (data points) used - only %
Similar to our tax codes - with enough pages you can manipulate almost any out come you can afford to pay for. sad.

IF we had a functioning press - would be a great article showing actual CARB ZEV credits are being handed out - since we can't depend on the captured regulators from the government to keep us informed. Perhaps readers know of such an article? I'll spend a few minutes on google to see what I can find. one requirement is actual numbers and not just %.
=-=-=
Well here is one source ~ 3pages https://www.arb.ca.gov/msprog/zevprog/zevcredits/2017zevcredits.pdf

Union of Concerned Scientists
For example: the Tesla Model S, which boasts a range of more than 200 miles, is eligible for 3.3 credits, while the 84-mile range Nissan Leaf is credited at 1.8 ZEV credits per car
What is ZEV?