The company adds that it is “regularly breaking single day, and 7-day records,” a signal that demand is rising.īut climate experts contacted by dot.LA did not share FirstElement’s enthusiasm for hydrogen passenger vehicles, nor do many automakers, due to the relative scarcity of clean hydrogen, its low energy efficiency, the risk of leakage, and the overwhelming momentum behind battery-powered vehicles in the market today. Named after hydrogen’s position on the periodic table, FirstElement says its stations have prevented “more than 110 million pounds of CO2” from polluting the atmosphere to date. All four firms hail from Japan, which has also banked on hydrogen in pursuit of its climate goals. To fund the expansion, it recently raised $105 million from Air Water, MUFG, Nikkiso, and JII. The Irvine-based company, which already lays claim to running the “largest hydrogen fueling network in the world,” aims to more than double in size to 80 stations by 2024. With support from California taxpayers and a handful of investors, FirstElement Fuel is poised to operate more than half of those locations. In the next five years, the state plans to triple the number of hydrogen refueling stations available to everyday drivers. These hydrogen-powered passenger vehicles aren’t anywhere near as popular as electric cars, but that isn’t stopping California from spending millions of dollars to support them. In California, virtually the only state with hydrogen cars on the road, about 47 active fueling stations serve a trickle of early hydrogen adopters who mostly cruise around Los Angeles and the Bay Area today.
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