It's something of a chicken-and-egg scenario. Which needs to come first: the hydrogen car, or the hydrogen refuelling point?
Honda believes the latter. This week it (with the help of BOC) unveiled the first open-access hydrogen refuelling facility in the UK at its factory in Swindon. And yet, to date, not one hydrogen-powered car – not even Honda's FCX Clarity - has ever been sold in the UK. All the vehicles we have seen so far have been demonstration models.
And here in lies one of the great challenges for advocates of hydrogen cars. To even get the technology to first base, you must first install an extensive network of refuelling points across the country, or at least across the major conurbations. At least electric vehicles can be charged via a conventional power socket should a public recharging point not be available or convenient.
The extensive cost of building such infrastructure can be estimated when you learn that this single facility at Swindon was built with a regeneration grant of £250,000 from the (soon-to-be-axed) South West England Regional Development Agency. (Professor Kevin Kendall, in the video above, states that "we can expect 30-40 such stations in England by 2015".)
And you can see from the underwhelming adoption of LPG-powered vehicles in the UK - despite their significantly lower fuel costs compared to petrol and diesel - the problems that can persist if you don't build a truly comprehensive network of refuelling points. The perception quickly builds that the technology is a hassle and not as convenient as "conventional" fuels, which, for many people, still over-rides financial considerations.
Electric vehicles are going through these birthing pangs right now as the race quickens to install as wide and diverse a network of recharging options as possible. Savvy innovations such as PlugSurfing, which utilises smart phones to let drivers locate and, crucially, share private charging points, should help to pick up the pace of adoption. But hydrogen vehicles seem to have the further handicap of being totally reliant on bespoke, dedicated refuelling points.
In the US, the Obama administration has gone noticeably cold on the idea of hydrogen cars. Earlier this year, Byron McCormick, the former director of General Motors' hydrogen fuel cell team, resigned from a federal hydrogen technology advisory committee due to government cuts in funding for hydrogen vehicles. "I just feel sad they'll be proven so very wrong by history," he said in his resignation email.
But which side of history do you think hydrogen cars will ultimately end up? Putting to one side the albeit important question of how you produce hydrogen as a fuel in a low-carbon manner, is it worth the epic investment required to install refuelling points across the country before any cars can be driven in earnest? And, if so, who should foot the bill?
