Automotive Fuel Cell System Market - Growth, Trends, and Forecast (2020 - 2025)

The hydrogen market, which is a segment of fuel cell market, has great potential as compared to biogas, natural gas, methanol, and hydrocarbons. The low density of fuel cell electric vehicles (FCEVs) compared to gasoline, and the fact that fuel cell equipped vehicles are not completely green like pure electric vehicles have been restraining factors for the automotive fuel cell market.

Fuel cells convert hydrogen from a variety of sources into electricity through a chemical reaction with oxygen, yielding only water as an end product. Some fuel cell technologies, such as those using proton exchange membranes, need very clean hydrogen to operate well, while others, such as direct methanol fuel cells, have been made to run on other fuels. It has also developed a way to combine its fuel cells with natural gas turbines, using the fuel cell's excess heat to boost their efficiency to around 60%.

In the upcoming years, fuel cells could power the cars, with hydrogen replacing the petroleum fuel that is being used in most vehicles nowadays. Vehicle manufacturers, like Honda, Hyundai Motor Company, and Toyota, have started the manufacturing and production of fuel cell technologies and have been running effectively. Stationary fuel cells are the largest, most powerful fuel cells. They have been designed to provide a clean, reliable source of on-site power to hospitals, banks, airports, military bases, schools, and homes. Fuel cells also reduce the consumption of fossil fuels in vehicles. Electrolytes, like hydrogen, ethanol, formic acid, and ammonia, are renewable and that could be used to replace current fossil energy carriers (coal, oil, and gas).

The high segment of passenger vehicles in the total vehicle production and the demand for fuel cell buses for public and private transportation have been driving the Asia-Pacific automotive fuel cell market. Also, the Asia-Pacific region represents the biggest market for green technologies in the world, and as of now, the largest markets for fuel cells in the region are Japan, China, and South Korea. Moreover, the region is home to the leading OEMs, such as Toyota, Hyundai, and Honda.

These companies have been planning to invest heavily to expand their production capability and promote fuel cell vehicles. Also, the increase in power generation from cleaner energy sources is further expected to boost the advancements in fuel cell technology market in the region.

Several countries across the region are also substantially investing in the development of hydrogen infrastructure and have introduced various methods to expand hydrogen refueling station availability.

On the other hand, the North American market may witness considerable growth on account of the rise in investments in the manufacturing of advanced fuel cell systems.