FOR DECADES, hydrogen has been the ‘Dracula’ of automotive fuels. And just when you thought a stake had been driven through its zero-emissions heart, the technology rises from the grave. In 2015, even with gasoline cheaper than it has been in years, hydrogen is back to haunt those who insist that battery electric vehicles are the long-term solution for reducing fossil fuel consumption and carbon dioxide emissions.
This time—with hydrogen fuel cell costs falling significantly, and a tiny yet budding network of public fuelling stations—automakers are placing their latest long-odds bet on hydrogen cars.
Hyundai has been the first in the latest wave of fuel cell models, which are actually electric cars with one important difference: instead of a plug-in battery that draws power from the electrical grid, a fuel cell generates power from an electrochemical reaction between onboard hydrogen and oxygen in the air. Clean water trickles out of the tailpipe as the only byproduct.
In a technical riposte to most battery electric vehicles, fuel cell cars operate as conveniently as gasoline models. They travel roughly 300 miles on a tank, and their ultra-strong carbon-fibre tanks can be pumped full of hydrogen in less than 10 minutes.
On paper, hydrogen cars can indeed appear to be a green dream. So why aren’t more people driving them? Proponents note that hydrogen is the most abundant element in the universe. But deriving that element efficiently has been a major catch, along with a dearth of places to refuel. The cars’ onboard fuel cells and storage tanks have been exorbitantly expensive. When Honda tested its first FCX fuel cell cars in California in 2002, analysts estimated the cars cost up to $1 million each to produce. Automakers have also talked up hydrogen cars, with sceptics seeing the technology as a pipe dream. Automakers’ hands in some ways are being forced: California’s powerful regulators have decreed that the six largest automakers build increasing numbers of zero-emissions models towards a goal of having 87% of the new cars produce zero tailpipe emissions by 2050.
Those automakers now receive more than twice the credits from California for each fuel-cell car they produce versus battery electrics. California’s $5,000 rebate to fuel-cell car buyers compares with $2,500, for EV industry analysts have labelled these relatively costly.
In 2007, General Motors introduced a test fleet of 119 Chevrolet Equinox hydrogen SUVs. The company boldly predicted it would sell as many as one million fuel-cell vehicles by 2020. But development stalled, and the industry turned its attention to EVs and plug-in hybrids.
Honda and Mercedes have leased small test fleets of hydrogen cars to California customers. How small? Since 2002, Honda has put 43 of its FCX and FCX Clarity models in consumers’ hands. Among more than 28 million passenger cars on California’s roads, barely 100 carry hydrogen onboard.
But still, automakers, including Toyota—the unmatched king of hybrids—remain bullish on hydrogen. Toyota will offer its $58,325-Mirai fuel cell compact this year—for now, exclusively in California. The car’s name means ‘future’ in Japanese. Honda will follow in 2016 with a car based on its streamlined FCV concept model.
Toyota began developing its hydrogen technology more than 20 years ago, even as it began work on the first Prius hybrid, as per John Hanson, Toyota’s spokesman for advanced technology. The company says it has reduced the Mirai’s fuel cell cost by 95% compared with its previous-generation car. Toyota has linked up with BMW to develop fuel cells, with other alliances formed by GM and Honda, and by Daimler, Ford and Nissan.
Devin Lindsay, a powertrain analyst at IHS Automotive, says with the internal combustion engine continuing to evolve and improve, it will be decades before a majority of Americans switch to alternative-fuel cars. But with enough cars and infrastructure, hydrogen could become a valuable part of the energy portfolio.
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