A youtuber says "Hydrogen Cars Make No Sense"

[JBChiangRai]

https://youtube.com/shorts/N1dveN6OeFA?si=m61z6I8nmNyDbCQa

[vinny41]

On 11/30/2023 at 9:10 AM, JBChiangRai said:

https://youtube.com/shorts/N1dveN6OeFA?si=m61z6I8nmNyDbCQa

Why Hydrogen Cars Are Better Than Electric Cars

Hydrogen cars are better than battery-powered cars in so many ways, but they have a long way to go

https://www.topspeed.com/hydrogen-cars-better-than-electric-cars/

[bignok]

I like petrol cars.

[JBChiangRai]

2 minutes ago, vinny41 said:

Why Hydrogen Cars Are Better Than Electric Cars

Hydrogen cars are better than battery-powered cars in so many ways, but they have a long way to go

https://www.topspeed.com/hydrogen-cars-better-than-electric-cars/

 

Two points in there are wrong, and they are both related to the manufacture of Hydrogen.

 

Hydrogen cars are more efficient, lighter and faster.  

Hydrogen makes better electric cars.

 

Currently, the only mainstream Hydrogen car is the Mirai I featured and the back seats are unusable except by children, it's slow and definitely better than any EV.

 

The big problem with Hydrogen is the efficiency.  By the time it's in your car it's roughly 25% as efficient as a BEV (battery EV).  The reason for this is Hydrogen has to be made by using electricity..... electrolyse water, it has to be compressed, put in tankers, taken to garages, stored underground, put in cars and turned back into electricity or energy by exploding it in a reciprocating engine (in this latter case efficiency halves to 12.5%).

 

Hydrogen cars are not lighter and faster, they can be lighter or they can be faster.  Fuel Cells are expensive, they are likely to be lighter not faster.  Fuel Cells do not adapt well to ramping up or down production of electricity.  Think of a very slow turbocharger taking an age to spin up. To get round this, they have to have Lithium batteries.

 

I predict that we will see both BEV's and Hydrogen cars.

 

Hydrogen cars will cost 4 times the cost per kilometer in fuel over BEV's, but they "may" have a longer range and can be fueled quicker.

 

Because they are more expensive to run, most people will prefer BEV's, so a price differential will happen.  BEV's will be more expensive to buy and Hydrogen cars will be seen as the cheaper, less desirable product.  This is likely to happen because of shortage of Lithium mining and processing plants.  Supply and Demand will push up the price of relatively scarce EV's (assuming demand is 10-50 times what it is now) and the more abundant availability of Hydrogen cars will fill the gap.

 

Hydrogen is never going to be better, if better means people will choose it over BEV's.