RegGuheert
Well-known member
Toyota, Honda and Nissan along with many other automobile manufacturers are developing hydrogen cars. While I can certainly see hydrogen cars filling some needs that are currently unfulfilled by electric vehicles, I can only imagine that hydrogen is a temporary solution that will be replaced by EVs in the long run. In other words, I do not see what Toyota and Honda see in hydrogen cars that makes them want to put that development ahead of BEVs.
So I thougtht I would start a thread on the topic.
Here are some comments:
C1) While hydrogen is a fuel, it is not sitting around in any usable form. You need to extract it from other molecules to use it in a vehicle. You can either get it from ethanol or petroleum products through the use of a reformer or you can add energy to something like water to produce it. Neither seems very attractive to me.
C2) One of the attractive features for BEVs is being able to refuel at home. While this is also possible with a hydrogen vehicle, I can imagine the cost and maintenance for home hydrogen fueling equipment will be significantly higher than that of an EVSE.
C3) Fuel cells typically use rare, expensive metals such as platinum as a catalyst, which does eventually get consumed, so I do not see this as overly sustainable. If batteries can be made more reliable, I would ink they would be much more attractive. Plus batteries (or some other form of storage) will likely be necessary in a fuel cell vehicle to reduce the impedance of the source.
Now some questions:
Q1) What do Toyota and Honda see as the primary selling points of hydrogen fuel-cell vehicles? I get that they can be refueled more quickly, but any lead in over BEVs in that area is not likely to last long.
Q2) What are the primary target markets for hydrogen fuel-cell vehicles? Are they focused on consumer applications, or are there other areas where hydrogen has big benefits over BEV such as farm tractors or long-haul trucking?
Q3) Are all of the hydrogen vehicle offerings fuel-cell-based or are some companies developing ICE hydrogen vehicles?
Q4) Are their any efficiency benefits of hydrogen fuel-cell vehicles over BEVs, or are they always less efficient?
Q5) How loud is the compressor in a home hydrogen fueling station?
I can only imagine that my beliefs (or biases) must be way off base here somewhere, or large companies like Honda and Toyota would not be investing so heavily in this area. Perhaps someone can explain the hydrogen economy idea in a way that makes sense even to RegGuheert!
So I thougtht I would start a thread on the topic.
Here are some comments:
C1) While hydrogen is a fuel, it is not sitting around in any usable form. You need to extract it from other molecules to use it in a vehicle. You can either get it from ethanol or petroleum products through the use of a reformer or you can add energy to something like water to produce it. Neither seems very attractive to me.
C2) One of the attractive features for BEVs is being able to refuel at home. While this is also possible with a hydrogen vehicle, I can imagine the cost and maintenance for home hydrogen fueling equipment will be significantly higher than that of an EVSE.
C3) Fuel cells typically use rare, expensive metals such as platinum as a catalyst, which does eventually get consumed, so I do not see this as overly sustainable. If batteries can be made more reliable, I would ink they would be much more attractive. Plus batteries (or some other form of storage) will likely be necessary in a fuel cell vehicle to reduce the impedance of the source.
Now some questions:
Q1) What do Toyota and Honda see as the primary selling points of hydrogen fuel-cell vehicles? I get that they can be refueled more quickly, but any lead in over BEVs in that area is not likely to last long.
Q2) What are the primary target markets for hydrogen fuel-cell vehicles? Are they focused on consumer applications, or are there other areas where hydrogen has big benefits over BEV such as farm tractors or long-haul trucking?
Q3) Are all of the hydrogen vehicle offerings fuel-cell-based or are some companies developing ICE hydrogen vehicles?
Q4) Are their any efficiency benefits of hydrogen fuel-cell vehicles over BEVs, or are they always less efficient?
Q5) How loud is the compressor in a home hydrogen fueling station?
I can only imagine that my beliefs (or biases) must be way off base here somewhere, or large companies like Honda and Toyota would not be investing so heavily in this area. Perhaps someone can explain the hydrogen economy idea in a way that makes sense even to RegGuheert!