Shell, one of the hydrogen industry’s big players, has announced that it will soon close all of its hydrogen refueling stations that pump hydrogen for passenger vehicles in California.
The rest of these vehicles’ owners, including Toyota Mirai, Hyundai Nexo, and Honda CR-V FCEV, are left without a backup. The oil company operated seven of the 55 hydrogen stations in the state. What this is to say is, this constitutes almost 12 percent of all the refueling stations.
The oil company said “supply issues” and “external market factors” as the reasons for the move while Hydrogen Insight reported. The decision was made following a previous Shell move to “temporarily” close five of its service stations in 2023, which will now be closed permanently
The closures are part of Shell’s September announcement that it scrapped plans for additional hydrogen refueling stations in California. However, the oil giant once said it would build 48 stations across the state, but later reversed its decision last year.
Lately, Shell said that it is to concentrate on heavy-duty vehicles, namely transport trucks, regarding hydrogen recharge. Meanwhile, it is planning to spend on EV technology for light-duty vehicle charging.
That indicates the development of the new energy vehicles market. Toward the end of 2023, only 3,143 hydrogen fuel cell vehicles were registered in California, 1% of the total of new electric vehicles registered within the same year.
But, probably, a lack of demand is not the only reason why Shell set its price the way it did. The company purchases its equipment from a Norwegian enterprise named Nel that is fighting a lawsuit which is filed by Japan’s Iwatani. The latter also has a network of charging stations and the former’s equipment has huge flaws.
It does not matter what inspires the decision, but the outcome is simple: fewer choices for the owners of hydrogen vehicles. Toyota advised Mirai drivers to use facilities such as the Hydrogen Fuel Cell Partnership website to locate stations that offer the fuel.
Toyota acknowledged that some Mirai customers in California might face refueling issues for the reason that some hydrogen stations have been closed lately in the state. We will keep working together with all the affected Mirai customers to define the issues they face on a customer-by-customer basis. We stand firm in our partnership with stakeholders to develop California’s hydrogen refueling infrastructure now and in the future.