Hydrogen cars are Elon Musk’s nightmare – Many companies are “entering” the game

A hydrogen electric vehicle (FCEV) is a type of alternative fuel vehicle that uses hydrogen fuel for propulsion. Power is produced by converting chemical energy into mechanical energy, either by reacting hydrogen with oxygen in a fuel cell to power an electric motor or, less commonly, by burning hydrogen in an internal combustion engine.

In 2019, there were three hydrogen car models available to the public in select markets: the Toyota Mirai (2014), which is the world’s first Fuel Cell Electric Vehicle (FCEV), the Honda Clarity (2016) and the Hyundai Nexo (2018). Some other companies, such as BMW, are still researching hydrogen cars, while Volkswagen, on the other hand, believes that this technology has no future in the automotive field, mainly because a fuel cell electric vehicle consumes three times more energy than a battery electric car. . As of December 2020, there were a total of 31,225 FCEV hydrogen vehicles on the world’s roads.

As of 2019, 98% of hydrogen comes from the reaction of water with methane, producing carbon monoxide and hydrogen (CH4 + H2O ⇌ CO + 3 H2). The reaction is carried out thermochemically or pyrolytically using renewable raw materials, but the processes are currently expensive. Efforts are being made to develop various technologies aimed at reducing costs while increasing quantities to compete with natural gas hydrogen production.

The benefits of hydrogen technology are fast refueling time (compared to gasoline) and long driving distance on a single fill-up. The disadvantages of using hydrogen are the high carbon dioxide emissions when hydrogen is produced from natural gas, the initial capital investment, the low energy content per unit volume at ambient conditions, the production and compression of hydrogen, the investment required to be made in filling stations of fuel to distribute the hydrogen, the transport of hydrogen to service stations and the lack of capacity to produce or distribute hydrogen at home.

The Toyota Mirai is one of the first hydrogen cell vehicles to be sold commercially since 2014.

One of the most important problems in the development of the market for cars that consume hydrogen is the lack of refueling stations. Transporting and storing liquid hydrogen has always been one of the main problems of these zero-emission cars. Therefore, it is not surprising that stations are still very rare. Only about thirty are open to the public in France. While the filling stations for electric cars (purely electric and hybrid) are more than 50,000. The very long range of hydrogen-powered cars is not enough to compensate for the shortfalls in the hydrogen-powered cars’ supply network.

Research shows that if private cars, vans and trucks that consume hydrogen are circulating in cities, there will be a significant reduction in the amounts of dangerous pollutants emitted by their engines.

Many brands are planning to produce future models with hydrogen if the implementation of the program to create a wide hydrogen supply network in the EU starts. Here is what has become known recently: Renault is aiming to produce special versions of the Kangoo and the Master with hydrogen. Stellantis with the brands Peugeot, Opel and Citroen will play a key role in the development of the market for cars that consume hydrogen. Toyota is a pioneer and has already launched models with fuel cells. Daimler, Hyundai and startups like Nikola, Gaussin and Hyzon are also preparing to enter this car segment, expecting high profits.

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