Prague’s First Hydrogen Car Fuel Station

Although hydrogen powered cars are readily accessible in the Czech Republic, fuelling stations are far less prevalent.

With the completion of Prague’s first hydrogen car fuel station, this is slowly starting to change.

Over the course of the past several years, there has been a significant influx in the interest in hydrogen fuel cells, with automobile manufacturers starting to invest in this technology for both commercial and domestic usage.

Currently, three models of hydrogen cars are available in the domestic market, manufactured by Toyota and Hyundai.

Without further investment in more fuel stations, the growth of the market for hydrogen cars will be stunted in the Czech Republic. This problem has been addressed by the completion of the first publicly available hydrogen station with 24/7 operation in Barrandov.

The hydrogen fuelling station is owned and operated by Orlen Unipetrol, a Czech chemical company owned by Polish oil company PKN Orlend. Currently, the cost for fuelling sits at CZK 278 per kilogram – which can power a hydrogen car for 100 kilometres.

Director of Toyota and Lexus in the Czech Republic, Martin Peleška, believes that hydrogen cars could be adopted for use in fleets, Additionally, he maintains that the development of hydrogen fuelling infrastructure will accelerate in the near future, with the Unipetrol company estimating the construction of 28 hydrogen refuelling stations by 2030.

Transport Minister, Martin Kupka, has hopes that domestic hydrogen infrastructure will eclipse the estimates provided by Peleška, with 12 hydrogen fuel stations being completed by 2025, and 80 stations by 2030.

The Czech government has allocated six billion crowns for such infrastructure, with 11 hydrogen fuel stations already entering the approval phase. This will be necessary to meet the demands of the estimated 50,000 hydrogen cars that will be registered in the Czech Republic by 2030.