In a bulletin on Friday, GM announced that it will end its HYDROTEC brand’s work on hydrogen fuel cell development. Instead, GM will focus its R&D efforts on batteries, charging technologies and electric vehicles. The company said it will continue its Fuel Cell System Manufacturing joint venture with Honda, which creates cells for data centers and power generation.
The post from GM said that due to limited infrastructure and high costs, hydrogen cells simply haven’t taken off for consumer vehicles. Lately, the automotive industry seems to agree. GM’s shift follows a similar move in February from Toyota, which isn’t completely giving up the ghost but instead pivoted its hydrogen cell projects to focus on industrial applications rather than consumer ones.