Worldwide, there are just over 200 hydrogen refueling stations, which reflects the addition of just 27 stations in 2012.
There are probably just as many hydrogen fuel cell vehicles on the road, which doesn’t include fleet operators with private hydrogen refueling stations. Still, this kind of progress is expected to be slow, just as the addition of gasoline refueling stations was a hundred years ago.
Electric vehicle recharging stations experienced the same slow beginning, but are now numbering in the thousands, nearly 6,000 in the US alone, which is helping to spur the adoption of electric vehicles across the country.
Hydrogen refueling stations number just ten in the whole of the US, nine of those in California. California has big plans, though, and by 2016 expects to have nearly 70 stations publicly accessible.
There is a delicate balance that must be struck, between the coverage the a future fleet of hydrogen fuel cell vehicles would require but doesn’t exist yet, and making sure that such stations are economically viable for those that operate them. Which comes first, the chicken or the egg, or in this case, the hydrogen refueling station or the fuel cell vehicle?
