Hydrogen vs electric cars

Hydrogen cars are often talked about as potential rivals to electric cars. How accurate is this, and which is better?

It is not uncommon for people to say in discussions about electric cars and transport in general, that the future clearly lies in hydrogen cars. As with electric cars, hydrogen cars produce zero harmful emissions on the road, but unlike electric cars, which take a fair amount of time to recharge, hydrogen cars can be refilled about as quickly as a petrol or diesel car.

But how realistic a prospect are hydrogen cars, how do they stack up against EVs, and will we all be driving them in a few years time?

What is an electric car and how does it work?

Electric cars are relatively simple machines in principle. Mains electricity is stored as chemical energy in a battery, before being converted back into electrical energy by the car’s power systems, with this electrical energy used to power a motor or motors that turns the car’s wheels.

What is a hydrogen car and how does it work?

Hydrogen cars are far more complex than EVs. Hydrogen is pumped into a car’s tank and stored at very high pressure, as hydrogen is far less energy dense than petrol/diesel so must be compressed to get enough of the stuff on-board.

Hydrogen is then released into what is known as a ‘fuel cell’, and here an anode and cathode split hydrogen molecules into protons and electrons. The protons become water (the only on-road emission a hydrogen car makes), while the electrons are electricity that powers the car, with a small battery storing this electricity, before passing it on to the motor that turns the wheels. A hydrogen car is therefore a small hydrogen-fuelled power station.

Hydrogen cars can be refilled in minutes at a dedicated hydrogen filling station, and can go roughly as far (400 miles or so) on a tank as a petrol car.

Is hydrogen power or electric power better?

It is common for questions such as this to result in an ‘it depends’ style answer, but here things are clear cut: aside from the time taken to recharge their batteries versus the time taken to refill a hydrogen tank, electric cars are  better than hydrogen cars.

Hydrogen fuel cells split electrons from hydrogen molecules to produce electricity

Consider some of the disadvantages hydrogen cars entail:

• They are complex, and expensive to build. Rumour has it that hydrogen cars cost more to make than they are sold for.
• Hydrogen is flammable and therefore dangerous if not properly stored or handled.
• Hydrogen has to be highly compressed for road use. This adds yet more complexity, and any distribution network for hydrogen has to handle this high-pressure gas.
• Producing hydrogen on an industrial scale uses large amounts of fossil fuels. Renewable methods exist, but they are more expensive, and hydrogen is mainly produced using CO2 intensive methods.

Any prediction can be wrong, naturally, but given the above, it is hard to make a case for the mass adoption of hydrogen cars in the foreseeable future. The technology behind hydrogen fuel cells is hugely sophisticated and impressive, and the hydrogen cars that exist in the real world are comfortable and good to drive, but there are significant obstacles to hydrogen cars as a whole.

That’s not to say hydrogen has no future in transport, though: the maritime, rail and freight industries may well be a natural home for hydrogen fuel cell technology.

None of this is to say that electric cars are faultless – they are comparatively slow to recharge, require significant natural resources for their batteries, and are not without CO2 emissions if the electricity they run on is generated using fossil fuels. But even with these disadvantages, electric cars are a more feasible prospect than electric cars at the present time.

Can I actually buy a hydrogen car?

Yes, but bear in mind you will want to live close to a hydrogen filling station (there are only 15 in the UK).

The Nexo is the first hydrogen-fuel celled car you can buy in the UK

There are only two hydrogen cars sold at present: the Hyundai Nexo SUV, and the Toyota Mirai. These cost roughly £50,000 and £69,000 respectively. Previous hydrogen cars (like the Honda Clarity) have come, gone and not been replaced.

What’s holding hydrogen back and is there a future?

As covered above, hydrogen cars are fantastic in theory, but practicalities surrounding their adoption are complex.

Others may feel differently, but it is hard to argue that the one advantage hydrogen cars have over electric cars (quick refuelling) outweighs the significant disadvantages they bring.

Moreover, hydrogen cars are actually electric cars, but electric cars with their own on-board power station, so arguably electric power is advantageous, as it is this form of propulsion that hydrogen cars ultimately utilise.

If nothing else, the fact almost every car maker on the planet is investing in and producing electric cars, while only a handful of manufacturers have ever offered hydrogen models, speaks for itself about what the automotive industry collectively believes is the future of motoring.

Things may change dramatically in the future, naturally: there are discussions about using offshore tidal power stations to extract hydrogen from water; powdered hydrogen could solve many difficulties currently posed by hydrogen cars; and CO2-neutral production methods for hydrogen are being built. But there are a lot of ‘coulds’, ‘maybes’ and ‘in the future’ there. As things stand, the thing that’s holding hydrogen cars back is hydrogen itself.

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