Sales of the Hyundai Tucson FCEV are much lower than expected, according to Autoblog. The company had hoped to build 1,000 of the fuel cell cars by the end of 2105, but so far it has sold only 273 cars worldwide since 2013. 116 Tucson FVEV’s have been shipped to North America and 117 to Europe. However, only 70 Tucson FCEVs have actually been leased in North America.
Should that come as a surprise? Absolutely not. The wonder is that Hyundai has leased any of them at all, considering there are only 10 hydrogen refueling stations in the entire US, with most of those centered around Los Angeles. There is one in Vancouver, and there are precious few of them in Europe as well.
Infrastructure is critical to the adoption of alternative fuel vehicles, whether they are electric cars or fuel cell cars. All of which makes Elon Musk’s decision to build the SuperCharger network one of the most brilliant marketing moves of all time.
One of the major reasons why there are so few hydrogen refueling stations is because they cost more than a million dollars each to build and often much more. Tesla does not release information on what each SuperCharger location costs to build, but the odds are it is far less than what a hydrogen facility costs.
With such dismal sales numbers, it seems unlikely Hyundai will produce anywhere near 1,000 Tucson FCEVs by the end of this year.
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