Hydrogen fueling stations closing across California, down 36% in 1 year

Hydrogen fueling stations closing across California

A hydrogen car owner in California now has fewer places to fill up than 2 years ago. Hydrogen stations open to the public fell from 66 in November 2023 to 42 in November 2024, the California Energy Commission and the California Air Resources Board report in their own joint counts, a drop of about 36% in 1 year. As of June 23, 2026, the Hydrogen Fuel Cell Partnership, which operates the live status tracker for the network, listed 25 of about 56 stations it tracks as unavailable, about 45%. A station a driver relied on last year may simply be gone, or offline for months rather than days.

Shell closes stations first

Shell supplied a large share of that drop by itself. The company closed 6 of its 7 light duty hydrogen stations in California on a single day, February 6, 2024, leaving only its Torrance station open, Hydrogen Central reports. Shell had already cancelled a planned 48 new station buildout the previous September, and the government report names a cancelled agreement for 50 stations and 1 declined award as part of the same pullback. Shell blamed supply problems, external market factors, and recurring technical difficulties with equipment from its supplier Nel, along with related lawsuits.

A tanker explosion deepens the closures in 2026

A pressurized hydrogen tanker truck exploded in Colton, California in early 2026, and the investigation that followed paused compressed hydrogen deliveries tied to the site, CleanTechnica reports. Stations reported offline network wide peaked at about 70% that March, close to 35 of about 50 publicly accessible stations. By June, the same live count above shows the share of unavailable stations had eased to about 45%, a partial recovery rather than a fix.

Too few drivers for the network already built

The joint state agency report reveals a capacity gap that helps explain why operators keep closing pumps instead of building more of them. The hydrogen network in California could theoretically fuel 36,000 light duty vehicles a quarter, the report states, but only 14,415 fuel cell vehicles, the technical name for cars that make their own electricity from hydrogen rather than plugging in, were actually registered in California as of the third quarter of 2024. That leaves most of the network built for cars that do not exist yet. Fuel cell vehicle sales have not caught up either. California registered 3,143 new fuel cell vehicles in 2023, less than 1% of battery electric vehicle sales that year, Hydrogen Central reports.

California keeps cutting its own station target

California has already cut its hydrogen station target twice. The 2023 report set 130 stations by 2027, down from an earlier 175 target, after 1 grant recipient cancelled its agreement. The 2024 report sets 129 stations by 2030 instead, with at least 8 able to fuel medium or heavy duty trucks. The network development pipeline shows where new stations actually stand, the Hydrogen Fuel Cell Partnership states. Of 106 retail stations in the pipeline in June 2026, 76 are funded but not yet in development, 17 are in permitting, 9 are proposed, and only 3 are under construction.