Toyota is slowly increasing its hydrogen fuel cell vehicle efforts as its home country encourages more investment in the clean-energy source.

The Japanese automaker, sued last year by California owners of its hydrogen fuel cell Mirai car over what they say is an inadequate number of public chargers, said its North American arm is making a strategic investment in a company planning to add 92 fueling points across 38 stations in the state.

The investment in FirstElement Fuel comes as California, with the country’s biggest hydrogen fuel cell charging infrastructure in the U.S., still has only about 50 stations for light-duty vehicle fueling, according to the California Energy Commission. 

The commission doesn’t specify how many individual fueling positions the existing stations have, but the FirstElement plans would add a significant number to the existing number.

Hydrogen fuel cells convert the element’s energy to electricity. The alternative operates much more efficiently than combustion engines and produces no polluting emissions. But fueling up can be challenging due to limited public stations. 

Toyota and Hyundai have had a hydrogen fuel cell model in their lineups for years, Toyota introducing the Mirai in 2014 and Hyundai producing its Nexo crossover SUV since 2018. Toyota also introduced a hydrogen concept version of its Tacoma pickup this year, and BMW has the iX5 concept SUV. 

But adoption has been slow as battery-electric autos consumption and charging infrastructure development have gotten more government and automaker investment. Along with limited charging infrastructure, a major obstacle to hydrogen fuel cell cars is the high cost of the fuel.

Japan is investing in hydrogen energy projects, including a fleet of hydrogen-powered taxis in Tokyo and a hydrogen-powered auto dealership in Asaka. Toyota President Koji Sato, also co-chairman of the Japan Hydrogen Association, said the taxis represent “a tremendous first step with meaningful implications for large-scale social implementation.”

Company Chairman Akio Toyoda underlined its overall goal when he said recently, “I believe that it is through purposeful passion and action that we will create a future of carbon neutrality.”

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