Air Products’ California fueling stations offering hydrogen below $10 per kg
07 March 2017
Air Products, a leader in hydrogen fueling and infrastructure worldwide, has achieved a pricing milestone at several California fueling stations, which are now offering hydrogen to fuel cell electric vehicle customers at less than $10 per kilogram. Advancements in fueling technology and a greater volume of vehicles now using the stations were important factors in allowing the pricing move to less than $10 per hydrogen kilogram ($9.99/kg).
Currently there are five Air Products California hydrogen fueling stations able to provide hydrogen at this new pricing. The five stations are all supplied with hydrogen from Air Products’ world-class hydrogen production and pipeline-connected facilities in Wilmington and Carson, California. The stations with the new pricing are located in West Los Angeles, Woodland Hills, Fairfax, Santa Monica, and the fifth is soon-to-be operational in Lawndale.
There were several recent advancements we were able to make in fueling station technology and in distribution to push pricing below $10 per kilogram. There has also been a marked increase in vehicles using our stations, and an even greater outlook for the volume of hydrogen fuel cell electric vehicles to be coming to market in 2017 and 2018.
—Ed Kiczek, global business director – Hydrogen Energy Systems at Air Products
Air Products hydrogen fueling stations all conform to industry dispensing standards. Further, 22 of the 25 hydrogen fueling stations operating in California today include Air Products supplied equipment, technology and hydrogen supply.
Air Products has vast experience in the hydrogen fueling industry. Several sites today for certain hydrogen fueling applications are fueling at rates of over 75,000 refills per year. Use of the company’s fueling technology is increasing and accounts for more than 1,000,000 hydrogen fills per year. The company has been involved in more than 200 hydrogen fueling projects in the United States and 20 countries worldwide, including China. Cars, trucks, vans, buses, scooters, forklifts, locomotives, planes, cell towers, material handling equipment, and even submarines have been fueled using Air Products’ technologies.
So $0.17 per mile for the Honda Clarity FCV, and $0.05 per mile for the Clarity BEV.
A premium of $24,000 over the course of 200,000 mile,15 year life of the car.
That puts the $29,500 MSRP, $22k after Federal tax credit, $19-19.5k after some state rebates, of the Hyundai Ioniq in sharp perspective. Will be interesting to see the MSRP of the Clarity BEV.
I guess the adage "nearly a free car" still holds for BEVs.
Posted by: electric-car-insider.com | 07 March 2017 at 07:13 AM
It's just a matter of time for H2 price to drop another 50% to under $5/Kg. When it comes and more H2 stations are available, extended range FCEVs will become common place.
Posted by: HarveyD | 07 March 2017 at 08:54 AM
No Harvey H2 will not drop 50%. This is what it cost. Handling is more costly for hydrogen than making it. Gasoline will not drop 50% either. Nor will electricity retail drop from its current price of 12 cents/kwh. Hydrogen is not a new thing. It has been around for decades and commercially available. There is no tech invention that can make it significantly cheaper.
Posted by: Account Deleted | 07 March 2017 at 09:21 AM
ECI I am not sure how you got your numbers. I use 72 miles per kg H2 EPA rated for the Honda clarity. So 14 cents per mile (=10 USD/72miles).
The Hyundai Ioniq BEV get 4 miles per kwh EPA rated and assuming 12 cents/kwh we get 3 cents per mile for the BEV. Some can get night prices for electricity as low as 6 cents/kwh so only 1.5 cents per mile in that case for the BEV.
I expect the Model 3 will also get about 4 miles per kwh EPA rated. We will see.
Posted by: Account Deleted | 07 March 2017 at 09:55 AM
You are correct, Change. TOU off-peak can be as low as $0.06 kWh. I should have showed my prices. Was using my local utility's $0.16 and a less-than-generous 333 W/mi for the EV, and 60 mi per kg for the FCV, which as you point out, is lower than EPA for Clarity (is EPA for Mirai if memory serves).
In any case, even given variances in regional electric prices, huge delta in operating cost over the life of the car - as much or more than the discounted & incented purchase price.
Posted by: electric-car-insider.com | 07 March 2017 at 11:35 AM
Two therms of natural gas costs $1, to say they won't ever sell hydrogen at $5 per therm seems like a bad bet.
Posted by: SJC | 07 March 2017 at 11:41 PM
Hatchet jobs by the usual suspects should not be allowed to obscure the real progress being made, or the enhancements of prospects for future emission free mobility for the hundreds of millions of motorists with nowhere at all to practically plug in a battery car.
If one is absurd enough to want to talk only about current costs for an early system which will be rapidly developed with falling costs, then hydrogen is usually included in the lease price for FCEVs, so the fuel cost is zero, as against the cost of the electricity for a BEV.
Some of us in northern latitudes want to be able to run a car in winter as well as summer, and to do so using mainly renewables.
You can't do that with BEVs.
Posted by: Davemart | 08 March 2017 at 12:42 AM
As always more wishful thinking and fuel cell BS from davemart. Norway is the country in the world with the coldest climate and yet in that country BEVs and PHEVs represent over 33% of new car sales. If BEVs had serious issues with cold weather I doubt they would sell any in Norway.
Batteries could still have an issue with seriously hot weather like in the UAE that FCV may not have. However, even here Tesla has started to sell their BEVs so I guess Tesla think that extremely hot weather is doable also for their BEVs. We will see.
SJC let me put it this way then. I believe the chance that retail electricity cost will drop 50% to 6 cents per kwh (average pricing) during the next 20 years is much higher than the chance of retail hydrogen cost dropping 50% to 5 USD per kg. Do I believe that hydrogen will never be price competitive with electricity as transportation fuel? Absolutely yes.
Posted by: Account Deleted | 08 March 2017 at 08:49 AM
It does not matter what you believe.
Posted by: SJC | 08 March 2017 at 11:40 AM
Current and near future FCEVs can/will offer 500+ Km all weather extended range and 3 to 4 minutes quick refills.
H2 cost may be a bit higher than basic electricity in many places on a 24/7 basis, but where higher efficiency lower cost electrolyzers are used with ultra low cost surplus REs (during off peak hours), the cost of stored H2 will approach 24/7 electricity cost.
Extended all weather range with ultra quick refills is worth more per (Km or miles).
Free heat for the passengers is another worthwhile benefit.
Posted by: HarveyD | 08 March 2017 at 03:01 PM
Harvey, can it accurately be said that the cabin heat you speak of is "free"? Surely it is the inefficiency of the powertain that creates excess, or waste, heat that needs to be removed with a radiator and some diverted to the cabin when needed.
When that hydrogen from renewable sources is produced and widely sold at retail at competitive prices, I'll be applauding too. But until then, it just a mirage, used as greenwashing by automakers who seek to kick the environmental can down the road.
Your health, and the health and well-being of millions in your community, depend on more affordable near term solutions like PHEVs.
The Volt starts at $32k. So do most other PHEVs. The Mirai starts at $57k. Kind of puts the install cost of a 12v outlet in your garage complex in perspective.
Posted by: electric-car-insider.com | 08 March 2017 at 05:57 PM
Low electricity prices made by much lower cost for future renewable solar and wind power will not change the fact that hydrogen for FCV will be at least 4 times more expensive than electricity for BEVs as measured per mile driven because BEVs are 4 times as efficient as FCV per mile driven when the loss of electrolysis and compression is also included as it should.
Electrolyzers are not getting more efficient. The best platinum based electrolyzers that are very expensive to make has 70% efficiency and then you need compression that is also 70% efficient so you lose 50% (=.7*.7). Another 55% is lost in the FCV so you end up with about 22.5% total efficiency for the FCV. BEVs are 90% efficient or four times better than FCV to convert a kwh into miles driven.
However, it gets worse because there is not enough platinum on the planet to deploy high efficiency platinum FCV and high efficiency platinum electrolyzers in scale. So a future based on hydrogen electolysers and FCV must use less efficient non-platinum based alternatives.
And it gets worse because BEVs last much longer and are less costly to maintain than FCV and their needed electrolyser and compressor infrastructure.
And it gets worse because FCV cost more to make than BEVs.
And it gets worse because BEVs are getting the ability to charge at 350 kw before 2020 meaning only 10 minutes is needed to charge 50kwh or enough to go 200 miles in a BEV. They also get fully driverless before 2020 so they can drive out at night and charge themselves if you do not live at a place where charging is available at where you park.
And it get worse because with driverless BEVs people can just buy a super affordable small BEV that is short range and instantly hail a large long range BEV when they need such a vehicle. This is the future. Ownership of super affordable short range BEVs combined with on-demand hailing of BEV for more demanding use cases.
FCV is a scam by the old auto-industry to pretend that they care about making sustainable vehicles for the future. FCV will never happen apart for some staged small scale sales and concept vehicles to keep the believers happy and hopeful. You are being deceived Harvey and so is Davemart.
Posted by: Account Deleted | 08 March 2017 at 11:37 PM