Some residents in Sandvika, Norway, will be classing themselves as lucky following a violent explosion at a local hydrogen fuelling station on Tuesday (Wednesday, New Zealand time).
Thankfully, there was nobody at the station when the explosion took place. However, local reports have said that two people have been hospitalised after the airbags in their car went off while they were travelling in the vicinity.
Station operators Nel are still to get to the bottom of what caused the explosion, but in the meantime they have closed their other hydrogen refuelling stations across Norway. And, similar measures have been taken by local car-makers.
Both Toyota and Hyundai have temporarily pulled their hydrogen-fuelled offerings (the Mirai and the Nexo), namely for practicality reasons given the reduced amount of stations for refuelling around the country.
“We don’t know exactly what happened on the Uno-X drive yet, so we don’t want to speculate," said Toyota Norway manager Espen Olsen, in a statement.
"But we stop the sale until we have learned what has happened, and for practical reasons, since it is not possible to fill fuel now.”
It's awkward timing for Hyundai in particular, who — on the same day — presented the Nexo to New Zealanders for the first time at the Fieldays agriculture expo.