Azernews.Az

By Alimat Aliyeva

The Austrian oil and gas company OMV has decided to shut down its network of hydrogen filling stations in the country due to high costs and low demand, Azernews reports.

The four remaining stations will cease operations between June 30 and September 30. A fifth station in Vienna has already been closed.

The announcement, made on April 22, marks the end of 13 years of investments in hydrogen as a "greener" alternative to conventional petrol, diesel, and electric vehicles.

OMV opened its first hydrogen filling station in Vienna in 2012, followed by additional stations in Upper Austria, Lower Austria, Styria, and Tyrol by 2017.

For the rollout, OMV partnered with German chemicals company Linde, a global leader in hydrogen production and storage.

H2 Mobility, a company formed by Linde, Daimler, OMV, and other partners (now majority-owned by private equity firm Clean H2 Infra Fund), has operated a network of over 50 hydrogen filling stations across Germany.

The decision to shut down the Austrian stations stems from high operational costs and almost complete lack of demand, according to media reports.

As of April 2025, only 62 hydrogen-powered vehicles were registered in the entire country. Of these, only 5 were privately owned, with the rest being company vehicles. For the owners of these vehicles, the closure of the stations is problematic, as there are no alternative fueling options, and hydrogen cars cannot use petrol or diesel.

Brussels Signal reached out to OMV, which is partially state-owned, to inquire about the amount invested in the hydrogen filling station network but had not received a response at the time of writing.

In 2015, during the opening of a hydrogen filling station in Innsbruck, Tyrol, OMV had described hydrogen as a "key technology of the future." Manager Alois Wach had called the fuel "nearly limitlessly available and low in emissions," referring to plans to use electricity from solar and wind power to generate hydrogen, which could then be used to fuel vehicles.

Despite these ambitions, the process remains inefficient and expensive. In 2023, a study by consultancy BCG revealed that the costs of "green hydrogen" were more than twice as high as previously projected.

Hydrogen cars are also relatively expensive. The Hyundai Nexo, a hydrogen fuel-cell powered car made by South Korea's Hyundai, cost nearly €70,000 when it was introduced in Germany in 2018.

OMV’s decision to shut down its hydrogen stations may signal a setback for hydrogen-powered transportation in Austria, and possibly across Europe. While hydrogen is touted as a promising energy carrier, its infrastructure development has faced significant challenges, particularly in terms of cost efficiency and demand.