Pike Research report paints a promising future for hydrogen transportation

A new report from Pike Research, a market research firm specializing in alternative energy, shows that more than 1.2 million alternative energy vehicles will be sold by 2020.

The massive number is attributed major efforts coming from the auto industry to push hydrogen fuel. Automakers are currently the leading advocates for hydrogen, championing an energy revolution that seeks to take transportation away from oil. While automakers are expected to continue building cars that run on fossil-fuels in the coming years, a growing number of companies are shifting their focus so that it remains almost exclusively on hydrogen.

Most major car manufacturers have plans to release hydrogen-powered cars into the commercial market between 2013 and 2014. The success of this endeavor has garnered a seemingly insurmountable level of skepticism from consumers and industry analysts as the infrastructure needed to power hydrogen transportation is severely lacking.

Automakers like Toyota, Honda and Daimler, however, have been working on that problem in recent years by building a number of hydrogen fueling stations in the U.S. and Europe they call the “hydrogen highway.”

Pike’s report shows that consumers are growing more accepting of the prospect of hydrogen-powered transportation as they are being exposed to the technology more. Fuel cells are often criticized for their expensive components, but automakers are working to show that their fuel cells are viable for the commercial market in terms of price and quality. These efforts are translating into promising gains for the alternative fuel industry as a whole.