5 SOLID REASONS AS TO WHY HYDROGEN CARS ARE THE FUTURE AND NOT EVs
1. RANGE ANXIETY
The number one question that pops into mind if you buying an EV is that, what am I going to do if the battery runs out of juice in the middle of nowhere. This is the exact question that has prevented an industry to take off for a century despite the fact that it has many pros attached to it. As a matter of fact, you would be amazed to know electric cars came before ICE cars during the start of the 20th century and due to some overlooked challenges the growth was halted for over a century but it has started to change with the introduction of the Tesla.
Hydrogen-powered cars don’t need to deal with this anxiety in the long run at least as they can be refueled just like today’s gasoline-powered cars at a gas station in roughly the same amount of time as compared to gasoline.
Currently, Tesla’s are able to provide the maximum amount of range that the laws of physics would allow without drastically increasing the weight of the battery or the size of the battery. 380 miles is the approximate value at which the graph goes vertically in the direction of weight rather than distance.
Tesla’s new Roadster is coming with a 600-mile range with a 200kWh battery pack that can propel it to 60 mph in just under 2 seconds, again, this is pushing the limits of how quickly a car can accelerate on normal street-legal tires.
Watch the video to find out about the physics of how fast a car can accelerate:
2. BEST OF BOTH WORLDS
Hydrogen-powered cars are essentially EVs but need hydrogen instead of a heavy battery to power the car. Like true EVs, they have motors at the wheel to power them, and unlike petrol-powered cars, they don’t rely on complicated ICE which as a result integrates the pros of both worlds.
They give the instant acceleration of an EV which people seem to love and the easiness of it to drive as the EVs provide.
They eliminate the temperature requirements of an EV and eliminates the probability of breakdown, unlike the ICEs.
The only thing that is keeping them out of the question is the lack of mass-market scale of production, due to this their prices are unnecessarily high, and becomes unreasonable to see it as a buying option. Currently, it is for the enthusiasts and billionaires of the world.
One more thing that is not supporting their growth is the lack of refueling stations for them.
3. NO GREENHOUSE GASES AT ANY STAGE OF THE PROCESS
ICE-powered cars burn high-density energy from fuel to make power and as a by-product release greenhouse gases at the end process through the exhaust system.
The EVs don’t emit any kind of smoke from the car but remember they consume electricity made from the grid which was made by burning coal which produces harmful gases. As you can see we are not “saving the planet” completely in both cases. But the electricity made by renewable sources can turn out to be a key difference as it is not producing any CO2, now at this process, we can say we are saving the planet.
Lastly, we come to hydrogen-powered cars. They provide a complete solution and fully help towards “saving the planet” as they are using the most abundant element in the universe as their fuel and in the end, they’re not producing harmful gases like EVs because they almost work like an EV minus the hydrogen part. And as a by-product they produce water, how amazing is that?!
Some can argue we have to take into consideration the greenhouse gases that were produced during the manufacturing process. But gases are produced in the manufacturing of the above 2 car segments as well. This is the only consideration we can take into account. But if the manufacturing plant has been running on renewable sources then this carbon emission effect comes out to be zero from start to finish (finish here is the life cycle of the car), which makes it a true competitor for the future of cars.
4. NO DEPLETION OF ANY SORT
Lithium-ion batteries do not have the technology, it all but we can’t imagine a world without it. We are in many ways surrounded by it. Let it be in our phones, in our laptops portable chargers. But every great thing has its shortcomings and these batteries have it too.
They deplete over time and don’t retain the same capacity when they were new. Generally, an iPhone battery depletes around 20% in an average use cycle in one year.
But hydrogen, on the other hand, has the same energy capacity in every gram no matter what the situation is. They retain the same amount of energy everywhere in the universe. There is no facade of charging your battery to only 80% in order to save your batteries from depletion.
And more thing, hydrogen-powered cars don’t get affected by the surrounding temperature. As in EVs, you have maintained the car in the optimum temperature range to extract its full mileage, which sometimes makes it unfeasible in the winter countries like Norway, Sweden, etc.
5. ABUNDANCE & ADAPTABILITY
As we all know hydrogen is the most abundant element in the universe and almost infinite supply in nature. Although the energy that can be extracted from e final process is very poor it is maintained by the abundance of the fuel. Unlike fossil fuel, we don’t need to worry about the finite supply.
Hydrogen as a fuel can adapt to any form in science and technology. It has even gone to the space station as a form fuel cell. Scientists are finding new ways to improve its adaptability and making it the standard fuel for humans in the coming generations.
