We take a look at Fuel Cell vehicles sales performance in 2017, after the introduction of the Toyota Mirai in 2015, FCEV's are on their Year Two, more or less where EV's were in 2012, so if they follow the same growth curve as plug-ins, we should see this technology reach 100.000 sales this year.
Well, did it? At 3.382 units registered this year, up 46% YoY, it is well below that, so...2017 was not the year that FCEV's took off.
But let's look at the individual performances of the three models currently on sale:
Toyota Mirai - 2.689 Mirai were registered in 2017, a 32% increase over the previous year, but below expectations. I had thought the model would be selling around 1.000 units/month, so...Why the slow sales?
Honda Clarity FCEV - 524 units were registered in 2017, well above the 2016 numbers, its landing year, but below expectations (1.000 units in 2017). But the interesting thing here is that Honda, maybe realizing the upcoming disaster, decided to make the car available also as PHEV and BEV. And both Plug-in versions are outselling the Fuel Cell...
Hyundai ix35/Tucson FCEV - Numbers of the Korean Fuel Cell were up slightly (+6%) regarding 2016, with 169 units being registered this year. A discontinued model in its ICE form, and currently being done by special order, it is waiting for its Nexo sucessor to finally retire.
In the UK the problem with FCEVs is the lack of hydrogen infrastructure.
ReplyDeleteThe problem with Hydrogen is the fuel. It is as expensive as diesel and is no energy efficient. Due to all of the steps involved in making Hydrogen useful.
ReplyDeleteThe problem is FCVs are stupid. The "hydrogen economy" was dreamed up by oil interests as a diversion to suck up and waste resources that could have been spent developing BEVs. (Remember King Bush the 2nd, and his Haliburton Prime Minister in the US inflicted it on us)
ReplyDeleteToyota went to the dark side when they canceled the electric Rav4, gave us the Mirai and moved their US HQ to Texas!