Fuel cell vehicles performance in China weakens

The China Automobile Association has released the latest details about the national auto industry, H2Bulletin reports. Publishing the February 2021 figures, the association said that 25 fuel cell vehicles were produced while the vehicles sales reached 28. The February production figures dropped by 34 units and sales were down by 63 units.

Overall the fuel cell vehicles production stood at 59 vehicles while sales were 91 units during the first two months of this year. However, comparing these sales figure to the same period last year, fuel cell vehicle production and sales fell 59.3% and 46.8% on a year-on-year basis, respectively.

The poor performance is likely to be mainly related to the pandemic. Having said that, the Chinese fuel cell buyers are also in a wait and see situation hoping that the government would provide more subsidies. The fuel cell vehicles sales are likely to increase would there be more incentives offered by the government.

Moreover, the growing hydrogen refuelling infrastructure is likely to underpin sales during the coming months. China has set a target to have 50,000 fuel cell vehicles on roads by 2025  and 1 million by 2030. Hyundai’s has also recently announced to build its first offshore fuel cell system plant in Guangzhou, China. These plans indicate that the market is heading in the right direction, albeit, at a slower speed.