Exploring the barriers to hydrogen fuel cell vehicles adoption in the Gulf-Europe corridor: a Fuzzy AHP and ISM analysis

The adoption of hydrogen fuel cell vehicles (HFCVs) is essential for achieving sustainable, low-carbon transportation, but many barriers hinder this transition. Therefore, this study aims to identify, categorize, and prioritize these barriers in the context of the Gulf-Europe corridor, also known as the Iraq Development Road Project (DRP). To achieve this, we adopt a two-stage methodological framework that integrates the Fuzzy Analytical Hierarchy Process (Fuzzy AHP) to quantify the relative importance of thirty secondary barriers, and Interpretive Structural Modeling (ISM) to explore the interdependencies among the top ten. The Fuzzy AHP results highlight technological, economic, and infrastructure-related barriers as the most critical primary barriers. The ISM analysis further reveals that three barriers, lack of hydrogen production hubs, limited hydrogen transport options, and hydrogen storage and transportation, are independent. Six barriers, fuel cell efficiency and durability, hydrogen production and distribution costs, vehicle range and refueling time, infrastructure investment, refueling station compatibility issues, and hydrogen purity requirements, are classified as linkage barriers. One barrier, high initial vehicle cost, is found to be dependent. To accelerate HFCVs adoption, we recommend strengthening hydrogen infrastructure, fostering technological innovation, reducing costs through targeted incentives, and enhancing policy coordination among stakeholders and policymakers. This study contributes to literature by offering a comprehensive understanding of the adoption barriers and providing actionable insights to support the development of more effective strategies. Notably, it uniquely addresses social, logistical, and technological barriers, alongside geographic barriers, that have been largely overlooked in previous studies.