The window for hydrogen-powered motor vehicles is closing fast, says a new report from Fraunhofer ISI.Dr. Patrick Plötz of the Fraunhofer Institute for Systems and Innovation Research in Germany has published a new study at in which he says fuel cell cars and trucks have little chance of becoming commercially viable and that the urgency of the climate crisis demands decision makers focus on battery-electric vehicles instead.
Recent technological developments have eliminated the main arguments in favor of FCEVs, namely longer range and shorter refueling times. “When battery-electric vehicles had limited ranges of under 150 km, and charging took a few hours, there was an important and large market segment for fuel cell vehicles — long distance travel.
“The current challenge for battery electric vehicles is long haul logistic operation and transport of very heavy goods ,” Plötz writes. “This is the use case often discussed for hydrogen trucks. Several truck manufacturers, as well as fuel cell and infrastructure providers, have joined forces and announced a target of 100,000 fuel cell trucks on European roads by 2030.
Plötz admits long haul trucking of more than 500 kilometers per day “poses a challenge” for battery-electric trucks, but European regulations require truck drivers to stop for a 45-minute break after every 4.5 hours of driving. “Within 4.5 hours, a heavy truck could travel up to around 400 km, and thus practical [battery] ranges of about 450 km would suffice if high-power fast charging for battery-electric trucks was widely available.
Elon, is that you
It was at best an intermediary Band-Aid while battery capacity to weight ratio got where it is now. No infrastructure for it, still ends up being less efficient, by far, than EV's powered by battery. And capacity will make huge leaps in the very near future, so hydrogen is null.