Pike Research‘s study, Fuel Cell Vehicles, which analyzes the current state of fuel cell technology moving toward commercialization in light vehicles, medium/heavy duty trucks, and buses, examines fuel cell technologies, hydrogen as a fuel, and key drivers of market development for FCVs.
The report also provides forecasts for global research and development spending, fuel cell transit buses, fuel cell light vehicle production and sales, and revenue from FCV sales.
The entire growth of the fuel cell vehicle market being dependent on two key elements: the growth of hydrogen gas refueling stations and improvements in the cells themselves, Pike Research expects FCVs to make a small niche within the overall vehicle market for the first five or six years after they are introduced.
Pike Research anticipates that while automakers are likely meet their commitments to bring FCVs to market by 2015, convincing governments to subsidize the refueling infrastructure and gas companies to build the stations will be hard.
The market for fuel cell vehicles can also be expanded through cost reduction, which in turn requires the development of a competitive supplier base that does not yet exist.
Fuel cell development for cars and trucks remains largely non-competitive, and the development of standards for components such as refueling nozzles, tank specifications, and pressure lines is expected to drive the technology toward wider adoption.
