While hydrogen fuel cell technology may not hold a distinct competitive advantage in the passenger vehicle market—where battery electric vehicles have achieved greater maturity in infrastructure and cost reduction—it retains significant merits in heavy-duty trucking and stationary power generation applications. This is particularly true when "grey hydrogen" (industrial by-product hydrogen derived from processes such as steam methane reforming or chlor-alkali production, rather than electrolysis powered by renewable energy) is readily available at competitive prices.

Under such conditions, the total cost of ownership for fuel cell systems can achieve parity with, or even fall below, that of lithium-ion battery solutions. Furthermore, when accounting for the end-of-life considerations—where fuel cells present fewer recycling challenges and material recovery complexities compared to the substantial battery waste stream associated with electrochemical energy storage—hydrogen fuel cells emerge as a fundamentally more sustainable and economically viable long-term solution.