The recently published study said carmakers are focused on reducing cost by raising volume, and establishing the supporting fuelling infrastructure through initiatives such as the H2Mobility scheme in Europe.

Navigant is predicting sales will more than double in the next two years, to 1,000 annually in 2015, rising steeply to two million by 2030. In the same 15-year period, worldwide revenue is to grow from $194m (£125m) to  $73.8bn (£47.7bn) – an 380-fold increase.

But it warned that building such stations can take between 18 months and three years, meaning it’s unlikely that there will be enough coverage to achieve large-scale deployment of hydrogen fuel cell vehicles by the 2015-2017 dates promised by manufacturers.

Navigant also said the market had shifted from its traditional Californian bias: ‘The center of gravity in the development of FCVs has shifted from the United States to Western Europe,’ says Lisa Jerram, senior research analyst with Navigant Research.  

‘Germany, the United Kingdom, and the Nordic countries have less geography to cover than the United States, and are forging ahead on plans to deploy hydrogen fueling stations.’