Tuesday, April 1, 2008 - 11:45 AM

Interregional Hydrogen Station Availability and it's Importance to Early Adopters

Michael Nicholas and Joan Ogden. University of California-Davis

When consumers are considering purchasing an alternative fuel vehicle with a separate fueling infrastructure such as hydrogen, availability of refueling stations close to home, and in surrounding regions is an important factor.  While there are questions remaining for the importance of stations in both contexts, much less work has been done in defining the importance of refueling in surrounding regions, which I will term interregional refueling, on the purchase decision.  We know that people make vehicle choices based on attributes that they will use very rarely such as four wheel drive.  However, consumers are willing to pay for attributes that could conceivably be used over the life of the car.  In the same way consumers will assign a value to being able to access stations that may only be used very rarely.  Through an online spatial survey of CNG customers with experience in using an alternative fuel, the value of interregional refueling will be estimated.