The concerns about global warming and the California requirements for zero emission vehicles have rekindled the interest in hydrogen as a fuel for passenger vehicles. In 1980 one of the authors (Kukkonen, 1981, SAE Paper 810349) concluded that hydrogen will not be used as an automotive fuel before the year 2000. Taking into account the developments since then and using as criteria total primary energy consumption and emissions of ’greenhouse’ gases, the present assessment concludes that hydrogen will not be used as fuel for personal vehicles before the year 2020.