A civil fraud case against Norwegian company Nel ASA, at the center of California’s failure to build a functional hydrogen fueling infrastructure, has been advanced by a California court. The case, brought by Iwatani Corporation of America, a subsidiary of a major Japanese industrial gas company, alleges that Nel knowingly sold faulty hydrogen fueling stations to Iwatani. The case has shed light on the extent to which these same stations were promoted and used by major players such as Toyota and Shell, before being abandoned or shut down. Nel denies the allegations and has attempted to have the case dismissed on procedural grounds, but the judge has ruled that California does have jurisdiction and that the allegations go beyond a simple breach of contract and into the realm of fraud. The judge also found evidence of active concealment by Nel, including failure to disclose that they had never built a working model of the H2Station and had no actual data to support their performance claims. After the lawsuit was filed, Nel abandoned the seven Iwatani hydrogen fueling stations and spun off its fueling division, which Iwatani claims is an attempt to shield assets from a potential court judgment. The failure of the technology in real-world settings is not uncommon, but for the hydrogen car industry, it came at a critical time when California was investing heavily in hydrogen refueling infrastructure.
