Open main menu
Home
Random
Recent changes
Special pages
Community portal
Preferences
About Wikipedia
Disclaimers
Incubator escapee wiki
Search
User menu
Talk
Dark mode
Contributions
Create account
Log in
Editing
Fuel cell
(section)
Warning:
You are not logged in. Your IP address will be publicly visible if you make any edits. If you
log in
or
create an account
, your edits will be attributed to your username, along with other benefits.
Anti-spam check. Do
not
fill this in!
=====Criticism===== Some commentators believe that hydrogen fuel cell cars will never become economically competitive with other technologies<ref name=Romm2014/><ref name=TechRev>{{cite web|url=https://www.technologyreview.com/2007/03/01/226486/hell-and-hydrogen |title=Hell and Hydrogen|date=March 2007 |publisher=Technologyreview.com |access-date=2011-01-31}}</ref><ref>{{cite web |url=https://www.slashgear.com/833231/heres-why-hydrogen-cars-were-doomed-to-fail |title=Here's Why Hydrogen Cars Were Doomed to Fail |last1=Fernandez |first1=Ray |date=April 14, 2022 |website=SlashGear |access-date=April 16, 2022}}</ref> or that it will take decades for them to become profitable.<ref name=Meyers1/><ref name=Lux2013/> Elon Musk, CEO of battery-electric vehicle maker [[Tesla Motors]], stated in 2015 that fuel cells for use in cars will never be commercially viable because of the inefficiency of producing, transporting and storing hydrogen and the flammability of the gas, among other reasons.<ref name=Musk1>[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Y_e7rA4fBAo "Elon Musk on why Hydrogen fuel cell is dumb (2015)"], YouTube, 14 January 2015, at 10:20 of the clip</ref> In 2012, Lux Research, Inc. issued a report that stated: "The dream of a hydrogen economy ... is no nearer". It concluded that "Capital cost ... will limit adoption to a mere 5.9 GW" by 2030, providing "a nearly insurmountable barrier to adoption, except in niche applications". The analysis concluded that, by 2030, PEM stationary market will reach $1 billion, while the vehicle market, including forklifts, will reach a total of $2 billion.<ref name=Lux2013>Brian Warshay, Brian. [http://www.luxresearchinc.com/news-and-events/press-releases/143.html "The Great Compression: the Future of the Hydrogen Economy"] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20130315140923/http://www.luxresearchinc.com/news-and-events/press-releases/143.html |date=15 March 2013 }}, Lux Research, Inc. January 2013</ref> Other analyses cite the lack of an extensive [[hydrogen infrastructure]] in the U.S. as an ongoing challenge to Fuel Cell Electric Vehicle commercialization.<ref name=RSC/> In 2014, [[Joseph Romm]], the author of ''[[The Hype About Hydrogen]]'' (2005), said that FCVs still had not overcome the high fueling cost, lack of fuel-delivery infrastructure, and pollution caused by producing hydrogen. "It would take several miracles to overcome all of those problems simultaneously in the coming decades."<ref>Romm, Joseph. [http://thinkprogress.org/climate/2014/08/13/3467289/tesla-toyota-hydrogen-car/ "Tesla Trumps Toyota Part II: The Big Problem With Hydrogen Fuel Cell Vehicles"], CleanProgress.com, 13 August 2014</ref> He concluded that renewable energy cannot economically be used to make hydrogen for an FCV fleet "either now or in the future."<ref name=Romm2014>Romm, Joseph. [http://thinkprogress.org/climate/2014/08/05/3467115/tesla-toyota-hydrogen-cars-batteries/ "Tesla Trumps Toyota: Why Hydrogen Cars Can’t Compete With Pure Electric Cars"], CleanProgress.com, 5 August 2014</ref> [[Greentech Media]]'s analyst reached similar conclusions in 2014.<ref>Hunt, Tam. [http://www.greentechmedia.com/articles/read/should-california-reconsider-its-policy-support-for-fuel-cell-vehicles "Should California Reconsider Its Policy Support for Fuel-Cell Vehicles?"], GreenTech Media, 10 July 2014</ref> In 2015, ''[[CleanTechnica]]'' listed some of the disadvantages of hydrogen fuel cell vehicles.<ref>Brown, Nicholas. [http://cleantechnica.com/2015/06/26/hydrogen-cars-lost-much-support/ "Hydrogen Cars Lost Much of Their Support, But Why?"], ''Clean Technica'', 26 June 2015</ref> So did ''Car Throttle''.<ref>[https://www.carthrottle.com/post/engineering-explained-5-reasons-why-hydrogen-cars-are-stupid/ "Engineering Explained: 5 Reasons Why Hydrogen Cars Are Stupid"], ''Car Throttle'', 8 October 2015</ref> A 2019 video by ''Real Engineering'' noted that, notwithstanding the introduction of vehicles that run on hydrogen, using hydrogen as a fuel for cars does not help to reduce carbon emissions from transportation. The 95% of hydrogen still produced from fossil fuels releases carbon dioxide, and producing hydrogen from water is an energy-consuming process. Storing hydrogen requires more energy either to cool it down to the liquid state or to put it into tanks under high pressure, and delivering the hydrogen to fueling stations requires more energy and may release more carbon. The hydrogen needed to move a FCV a kilometer costs approximately 8 times as much as the electricity needed to move a BEV the same distance.<ref>Ruffo, Gustavo Henrique. [https://insideevs.com/features/373145/video-compares-bev-fcevs-energy-efficient "This Video Compares BEVs to FCEVs and the More Efficient Is..."], InsideEVs.com, 29 September 2019</ref> A 2020 assessment concluded that hydrogen vehicles are still only 38% efficient, while battery EVs are 80% efficient.<ref>Baxter, Tom. [https://uk.news.yahoo.com/hydrogen-cars-wont-overtake-electric-111749065.html "Hydrogen cars won't overtake electric vehicles because they're hampered by the laws of science"], ''The Conversation'', 3 June 2020</ref> In 2021 ''[[CleanTechnica]]'' concluded that (a) hydrogen cars remain far less efficient than electric cars; (b) [[grey hydrogen]] – hydrogen produced with polluting processes – makes up the vast majority of available hydrogen; (c) delivering hydrogen would require building a vast and expensive new delivery and refueling infrastructure; and (d) the remaining two "advantages of fuel cell vehicles – longer range and fast fueling times – are rapidly being eroded by improving battery and charging technology."<ref>Morris, Charles. [https://cleantechnica.com/2021/10/14/why-are-3-automakers-still-hyping-hydrogen-fuel-cell-vehicles "Why Are 3 Automakers Still Hyping Hydrogen Fuel Cell Vehicles?"], CleanTechnica, October 14, 2021</ref> A 2022 study in ''[[Nature Electronics]]'' agreed.<ref>Plötz, Patrick. [https://doi.org/10.1038/s41928-021-00706-6 "Hydrogen technology is unlikely to play a major role in sustainable road transport"], ''[[Nature Electronics]]'', vol. 5, pp. 8–10, January 31, 2022</ref> A 2023 study by the [[Centre for International Climate and Environmental Research]] (CICERO) estimated that leaked hydrogen has a global warming effect 11.6 times stronger than CO₂.<ref name=CICERO>Bjørnæs, Christian. [https://cicero.oslo.no/en/hydrogen-leaks-add-to-global-warming "Global warming potential of hydrogen estimated"], [[Centre for International Climate and Environmental Research]], June 7, 2023. Retrieved June 15, 2023</ref>
Edit summary
(Briefly describe your changes)
By publishing changes, you agree to the
Terms of Use
, and you irrevocably agree to release your contribution under the
CC BY-SA 4.0 License
and the
GFDL
. You agree that a hyperlink or URL is sufficient attribution under the Creative Commons license.
Cancel
Editing help
(opens in new window)