The paper presents spatially explicit results for 27(2) countries of European Union indicating the potential lead markets for hydrogen fuel cell vehicles in 2030 and 2050. The assessment combined an expert elicitation survey results and a decision-making rule applied on a regional level using region specific characteristics. It has been shown that in 2030 the EU15 countries have a higher hydrogen FCV lead market score than EU12, with the difference of the lead market potential between EU15 and EU12 reduced in 2050. The results of the study can help policy makers to identify measures that could foster the deployment of hydrogen regions in specific lead markets. This is especially crucial as a large scale deployment of hydrogen vehicles and the related infrastructure needs to develop with lead markets as nuclei for further market replication and spread. Copyright (C) 2013, Hydrogen Energy Publications, LLC. Published by Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.