Developments on electric vehicles already exist from the year 1884. In this year Thomas Parker created the first commercially viable car. However, with the introduction of gasoline powered cars the interest in electric vehicles shrinked. Up until the nineties no significant developments were made in the electric vehicle area, but in 1990 the Zero Emission Vehicles Mandate was brought to life in California. This mandate required car manufacturers to sell a specific percentage of Zero Emission Vehicles per year (ca.gov, n.d.). From this moment car manufacturers initiated serious developments in Electric vehicles again, where in 2006 Tesla Motors created the first fully electric vehicle that was allowed on the highways. In the last decade many car manufacturers followed Tesla and this year around 49 different models of fully electric vehicles will be available on the market (Wikipedia, 2019). (Valdes-Dapena, 2019)
Alongside to the development of the electric vehicle, car manufacturers also invested in developments on hydrogen-powered cars. In 2014 Toyota launched the first mass produced fuel cell vehicle, called Mirai (Nied, 2015). Besides, hydrogen-powered vehicles are already widely used in prublic transport. For example, in the Dutch provinces Groningen and Drenthe a company called QBuzz is swapping his polluting diesel busses for hydrogen-powered busses (Joosse, 2019).
On the whole, electric vehicles and hydrogen-powered vehicles are making big steps towards a zero emission environment. However, how will the future of both technologies look like? Beside the fact that both technologies help reducing CO2 emission, there is also a fierce competition between the technologies. Elon Musk, co-founder of Tesla, said that hydrogen fuel cells are: “mind-bogglingly stupid” (D’Allegro, 2019). In 2017 Yoshikazu Tanaka, chief engineer of the Toyota Mirai, supported Musk: “Elon Musk is right — it’s better to charge the electric car directly by plugging in.” (D’Allegro, 2019) Although Tanaka added that the hydrogen technology is a serious alternative to gasoline. On contrary, a survey of a thousand senior auto executives conducted in 2017 by KPMG found that they see the hydrogen technology more likely to rule the future instead of electric vehicles. The biggest advantage according to these executives for the hydrogen technology is the short refueling time, which is just a few minutes (D’ Allegro, 2019).
To conclude, both technologies have their advantages and disadvantages. It is up to the car manufacturers to decide which technology they go for. For both technologies infrastructural challenges appear. Which technology do you think to rule the future? Or maybe a hybrid version?
References:
D’Allegro, J. (2019) Elon Musk says the tech is ‘mind-bogglingly stupid,’ but hydrogen cars may yet threaten Tesla [online] Available at:
https://www.cnbc.com/2019/02/21/musk-calls-hydrogen-fuel-cells-stupid-but-tech-may-threaten-tesla.html [Accessed on 2th Oct. 2019]
Ca.gov (n.d.) The ZEV Regulation [online] Available at:
https://ww2.arb.ca.gov/our-work/programs/zero-emission-vehicle-program/about [Accessed on 2th Oct. 2019]
Joose, B. (2019) Extra bussen op waterstof voor Groningen en Drenthe [online] Available at:
https://www.duurzaambedrijfsleven.nl/logistiek/32087/bussen-waterstof-groningen-drenthe [Accessed on 2th Oct. 2019]
Nied, D. (2015) The Long Road to the Mirai [online] Available at:
https://www.toyotatoday.com/news/hydrogen-fuel-cell-timeline.htm [Accessed on 2th Oct. 2019]
Valdes-Dapena, P. (2019) Electric cars have been around since before the US Civil War [online] Available at: https://edition.cnn.com/interactive/2019/07/business/electric-car-timeline/index.html [Accessed on 2th Oct. 2019]
Wikipedia.com (2019) List of electric cars currently available [online] Available at:
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_electric_cars_currently_available [Accessed on 2th Oct. 2019]
Hi Michael,
Really interesting topic! It seems like hydrogen would be the solution for the world; we have too much of it (especially with the ice melting and the sea level rising) and the emissions are environmental friendly. However, the Mirai you mentioned, was about 60.000 dollars to buy, which was a major set back for the ‘general’ public to buy this car. In addition, the infrastructure is lacking a lot. Electric cars are cheaper; and the industry is there. Therefore, consumers are demanding electric cars more.
Splitting the hydrogen from water, also still uses electricity and has negative emissions as well. The process is really complex, therefore, it is costly to drive.
The latest development I found was that Taiwan is building the new twenty station test network using the new Australian catalyst invention that creates Hydrogen from Ammonia. Two big Ammonia carrying ships are being built to ship Solar generated Ammonia from Australia. However, Ammonia does not seem to be very environmental friendly as well, so I am curious what this will bring.
Hey Michaël, that was a very interesting read. If I remember from my ‘research” is that hydrogen has some problems with the implementation. The production of hydrogen is still very dangerous as well as the transportation. In the long term it may become the next oil, but for now I think that electric vehicles will be the dominant player. Mainly because the infrastructure for the production of electricity is already here.
Hey Michaël,
The future of individual mobility is a very interesting topic! Indeed, it is hard to predict which drivetrain will finally rule the future. Governments are subsidizing Electric Vehicles which makes it attractive for carmakers to push forward this technology as they are ensured that customers will have the incentives to buy it. However, the range problem remains. In my opinion, it will still take some time for hydrogen cars to evolve as there is almost no infrastructure in place, and the storage problem still remains tricky. Looking at the environmental friendliness of electric cars for example, in terms of a Life Cycle Analysis, one can clearly see that the production of the battery as well as the energy mix of the country (with which power of the electric car is fuelled) in which the car is driven in play an important role on how sustainable the car really is.
It would be very interesting to also consider the possibility of Biomethane (used by Busses in e.g. Augsburg) and e-fuels (synthetic fuels such as e-diesel and e-gasoline). These are produced through the Power-to-X technologies (which are based on capturing CO2 from the air and the use of renewable energies) and would possibly allow customers to drive environmentally friendly without having to buy a new car. For now, these technologies are still expensive, however are predicted to replace fossil carbon in many sectors!
https://www.vda.de/en/topics/environment-and-climate/e-fuels/synthetic-fuels.html
https://www.dw.com/en/ifo-study-casts-doubt-on-electric-vehicles-climate-saving-credentials/a-48460328
https://www.bcg.com/de-de/publications/2018/climate-paths-for-germany-english.aspx
https://www.sw-augsburg.de/magazin/detail/antrieb-aus-abfall/