Hyundai Says Hydrogen Cars Aren’t Dead. Finding Customers Is Another Story

Hydrogen fuel cell cars were touted as the next best thing, but they never took off. One Hyundai exec has an explanation.

Photo by: Hyundai

By: Iulian Dnistran

Nov 2, at 7:21am ET

Comment

Like other car manufacturers, Hyundai hasn’t given up on hydrogen vehicles.
Hydrogen fuel cell cars need to be refueled like gas cars, but they don’t have any nasty emissions.
That said, the technology never took off, and at least one Hyundai executive knows why.

Hydrogen fuel cell cars were supposed to be the next leap forward in the automotive world. They drive like electric cars, but you can refuel them with hydrogen and drive hundreds of miles without having to sit at a charger for half an hour, and best of all, there are no nasty emissions.

It sounds like the perfect solution for pretty much everybody. Yet, ask anyone if they know someone who’s driving a hydrogen car, and they’ll struggle to come up with an answer. Toyota tried (and is still trying) with the Mirai, and Hyundai is still trying with the new Nexo. BMW, General Motors, Honda, and others have also dipped their toes into the technology, with varying degrees of success.

The second-generation Hyundai Nexo FCEV was unveiled in 2025, when it was touted as a global model.

Photo by: Hyundai

But why aren’t we all driving FCEVs? For starters, there’s barely any hydrogen refueling infrastructure in place, and now a Hyundai executive has revealed that people don’t really want to buy a hydrogen car in the first place.

“The biggest thing is you’ve got to find customers, said Scott Nargar, Senior Manager of Future Mobility & Government Relations at Hyundai Australia, for CarExpert. Despite having problems finding buyers, the Hyundai representative insisted that hydrogen isn’t “dead for passenger vehicles.”

Besides having extremely limited access to refueling stations, hydrogen-powered cars are also more expensive than comparable gas and electric vehicles. That’s not exactly a good look, especially now when prices of new EVs are considerably lower than a decade ago, making them a perfect fit for those who are prepared to make the switch to electric.

What’s more, the electric charging infrastructure is now very well laid out, with even more chargers coming in the near future, making range anxiety and charging anxiety a thing of the past.

What do you think?

View

Comments

So with such easy access to electric cars, why would any company still bother to invest in hydrogen fuel cell vehicles? It all has to do with diversifying. In spite of the huge costs associated with developing a new fuel cell stack and installing refueling stations, some automakers, including Hyundai, believe that hydrogen will still have a place in the future where gas and diesel might not be as ubiquitous as they are today.

While Toyota decided to let anyone in California spend their hard-earned money to buy a Mirai, Hyundai’s hydrogen-fueled dream has been largely limited to a few real-world trials. Its latest passenger FCEV, the second-generation Nexo crossover, can drive roughly 435 miles on a full tank of hydrogen, powered by a 110-kilowatt electric motor and a 2.64-kilowatt-hour high-voltage battery that acts as a buffer between the motor and hydrogen fuel stack.