’ In 2023, global sales of battery electric vehicles topped 10 million, plus about 4 million plug-in hybrids. In that same period, only about 14,000 fuel-cell vehicles were sold worldwide.
That means for every hydrogen-powered vehicle sold, 1,000 battery-powered ones were hitting the road. And the gap is widening, with EV sales growing by around a third in 2023 and sales of fuel-cell vehicle shrinking by roughly the same percentage.’
Some of the reasons offered in this article:
Cost to drive a (hydrogen FCEV) Toyota Mirai is ~14X that of a comparable Tesla Model 3
Chicken-and-egg problem of poor refueling infrastructure due to poor demand
When electricity is cheap, hydrogen is cheap. When the electricity comes from no fuel sources “cost” is mostly cost of finance. Accounts can do wonders with that.
Cost becomes a fuzzy number. Maybe more of a guess than a fact.
In the march of false equivalences, we will continue to have general public issues for all energy delivery methods.
The challenges, risks and occurrences will likely not be the same, however.
Hydrogen delivery continues to be challenged because of the pressure involved. This one key difference matters a great deal around infrastructure design and the ongoing maintenance of the same over decades (an obvious requirement of any infrastructure).
Make it very complex (safe) and people won’t deal with it. Make it simple but NOT safe (idiot proofing incomplete or not done at all), and we will have stories about more “freakish gasoline fight accidents”
Every new technology requires adjustment. Smart people think about the issues and design systems to deal with them. Media plays hell with this stuff. And users gradually adapt.
We went through this with unleaded gasoline and then with ethanol in gasoline. Same game all over again but different details.
I would love to see the final statutory language in the regulations for hydrogen fuel system delivery at consumer point of use.
I’m hard pressed to see that we would see wide-spread distribution without a specialist (trained human, or engineered process) if fuel is transferred from container to container.
For hydrogen tanks, this will severely limit expansion due to economic concerns.
For hydrogen generating fuel cells, this is not a consideration as no fuel is transferred in commercial quantity outside of the vehicle.
Automate the complete process. Every H2 vehicle required to be able to use a specified automated fueling system. Every H2 fueling station must offer all approved H2 approved fueling systems approved by a body that governs this portion of the fueling process.
There are proposals to crack ammonia to hydrogen (and nitrogen) as required. Ammonia is much easier to store and transport. It liquifies under pressure much as propane does.
And ammonia is widely distributed for fertilizer use. Hence starting distribution network including pipeline is already in place.
High odor makes undetected leaks unlikely. But can be toxic when inhaled. Rarely a problem when escape is possible but can be fatal if trapped.
