
In 2004, San Francisco acquired two Honda FCXes. But Hydrogen Fuel Cells? That’s what made them powerful. You see, they’re pretty hard to make so wide-spreadly available. But that didn’t stop then-mayor Gavin Newsom. He happenned to speak highly of the legacy soon to be paved by electric vehicles. With a cup of condensate, he drank the healthy tailpipe sludge and stated simply “You are looking, literally, at the future.”
Nowadays, as the Governor, Newsom had an executive order signed into effect last Autumn, regarding that all that was to be sold were new cars and light-duty trucks by 2035. With this being as royal decree as any, plenty of automakers have decided to hike up their haunches to be part of this EVs list. What fun! What joy it must be to compete! Goody!
According to the California Energy Commission (the CEC) there are about more than 70,000 public and private vehicle charging plugs. This would definitely fit well for Tesla.
But in general, the hydrogen fuel cell push is not so easy to pursue.
Though there have been positive milestones. Like when Toyota debuted the Mirai. It was a sedan powered by hydrogen-fuel-cells. The automaker would look to do everything they could do by calling customers trailblazers.
FCEV owners face a struggle, however. Hydrogen to have isn’t necessarily always the easiest thing to do. A Mirai owner, Doug Dumitru, decidedly began to help others with a website called H2-CA.com. It’s where people are able to see which stations are able to provide hydrogen to refuel hydrogen fuel cell electric vehicles.
However, there has been issues. Like when in June 2019, a hydrogen production facility from the Bay Area caught fire. From this and similar events, the hydrogen production capabilities have become scarce and not very consistent. So here’s hoping that California’s pledge of $115 million will harness at least 111 additional hydrogen-fueling stations, by 2027.