Stellantis is giving up on hydrogen fuel cell vehicles, with the French-Italian-American automaker ending development of the technology and halting production of fuel cell-powered vans.
In a statement, Jean-Philippe Imparato, the company’s chief operating officer for Europe, said: “The hydrogen market remains a niche segment, with no prospects of mid-term economic sustainability. We must make clear and responsible choices to ensure our competitiveness and meet the expectations of our customers with our electric and hybrid passenger and light commercial vehicles offensive.”
Due to the absence of fuelling infrastructure, lack of financial incentives and high purchase cost, the automaker says it “does not anticipate the adoption of hydrogen-powered light commercial vehicles before the end of the decade”.
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With this announcement, Stellantis will not move ahead of series production of the Opel Vivaro-e Hydrogen/Peugeot e-Expert Hydrogen/Citroen e-Jumpy Hydrogen mid-size vans, and the larger Opel Movano-e Hydrogen/Peugeot e-Boxer Hydrogen/Citroen e-Jumper Hydrogen/Fiat e-Ducato Hydrogen vans.
We understand a limited number of hydrogen vans have already been delivered for advance orders.
The Vivaro-e Hydrogen has a 45kW fuel cell, and its hydrogen tanks can be refilled in around three minutes. The van is technically a plug-in hybrid as it also has a 10.5kWh lithium-ion battery pack that allows it operate as a pure EV for around 50km. Total combined range under the WLTP standard is 400km.
There will be no jobs lost at Stellantis, with those working on hydrogen fuel cell development and vehicles moved to other projects.
Stellantis isn’t the only automaker to change course on hydrogen fuel cell cars. Toyota, one of the biggest proponents of the technology, gave up on its dreams of fuel cells being as ubiquitous as hybrids in 2023, deciding to focus instead on fuel cell commercial vehicles.
That said, the hydrogen fuel cell Toyota Mirai sedan (below) remains available, and automakers are still churning new fuel cell cars every so often. Hyundai unveiled the handsome second-generation Nexo (below) earlier this year, and confirmed it will be available Down Under.
The plug-in hybrid fuel cell Honda CR-V e:FCEV made its debut in early 2024, but is only available in parts of the US and Japan.
Hydrogen fuel cell vehicles combine atmospheric oxygen with hydrogen stored in on-board tanks to produce electricity and water. The electricity generated powers electric motors which drive the wheels.
Like with petrol-electric hybrids, excess power generated by the fuel cell, as well as energy recovered via regenerative braking, are stored in a high voltage battery pack.
Despite being the most abundant element in the universe, hydrogen exists in much smaller quantities on Earth, and what we have is locked in compounds, such as water and organic material. As such, extracting pure hydrogen requires large amounts of energy.
Without factories generating large quantities of hydrogen, delivery logistics, and facilities to sell it to the public, filling up a hydrogen fuel cell vehicle can be rather problematic. According to the CSIRO, there are 13 hydrogen fuel stations in Australia. The US isn’t much better with around 100 stations nationwide.
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