In the first part of 2024, the global market for mobile hydrogen fuel cars was only 5,621 units. During the same period, 4. 5 million battery electric cars were sold. It is transparent that hydrogen does not win for non -public passenger shipping. But many argue that hydrogen is the way for larger cars, especially trucks. I talked to Mike Nakrani, CEO of Vev, a supplier of responses from Fleet and supported through vitol, for the reasons why even for trucks, hydrogen will not be the correct solution.
Nakrani had a non -public delight with attempts to expand hydrogen fuel cells in heavy vehicles, adding for a joint company between Ford, Daimler and Ballard Force systems. After this attempt returned in 2017, he worked on a similar thrust for BP. In any case, hydrogen did not seem to have the correct characteristics for the market, while the batteries began to show potential.
“We saw that Battery Electric won the race for passenger cars in China,” Nakrani said. “We are beginning to see some of the Chinese products that come here in Europe. ” Byd makes wonderful advances, and Xpeng has just presented his G6 in the United Kingdom to compete with the Y. model of Tesla. Size of the relative car circle and then in a SUV. Now you see the Ford E-Transit with a larger battery and a much more wonderful diversity than the original. Flexis financed through Renault also hopes to expand this space. “Now, electric cars migrate into 16 tons, 26 tons, 44 tons or even 264 -ton mining trucks. Customers buy them now and use them for their general model. »
Nakrani sees a diversity of reasons why hydrogen does not turn out to be the correct selection even for trucks. “Professor David Cebon, from the sustainable road loading center, explained that the elements of the reasons why the effectiveness of the fuel mobile battery is much worse than batteries,” he said. “He shows how he takes one hundred kWh of electric power, when it passes through the mobile fuel procedure and succeeds in the vehicle and does garage and transport, it is 23%. Therefore, they are opposed to EV, where EV , where a hundred becomes 69. In other words, an EV is 3 times more effective than a hydrogen fuel mobile from the production of electricity from the point of view of supply.
However, power is not the only hydrogen challenge. “The garage challenges have not been overcome,” adds Nakrani. “If you keep it as a gas, you deserve to compress hydrogen to a much higher point to reduce the volume enough. You will have to put it in a tank that can involve this superior voltage system. I have not noticed the generation that can do it in a design of load that works today.
There’s another difficulty as well. “The third point is transport,” says Nakrani. “Because of those expensive storage solutions and the requirement of compression, getting it from point A to point B with a cost structure that could have a hope of being competitive is incredibly difficult. The truck OEMs have recognized this, which is why, if you talk to anybody senior in the truck market, they will all say there is a place that hydrogen may play, but it will be very limited. No one is saying it’s dead completely, but now everybody says that the EV will be at least 80 to 90% of the heavy-duty truck volume. Then the problem for hydrogen is, if it’s such a niche, the cost will never achieve the economies you need to deal with its inefficiencies.”
“Many corporations have put a massive sum of cash to verify to fold the physics legislation, and have not yet controlled,” Nakrani said. “Toyota has spent billions for this. But the parameters have remained the same for a long time. There is a reluctance to miss because they have invested a lot. You can perceive what a practical transfer for oil and fuel would be like. They provide fossil fuels, now supply this giant green fuel, however, the business style remains the same and consumers may also like it. They have been doing this for 60 years and paints them. To governments such as hydrogen because they do not have to worry about road costs, because they can raise a pump tax and gather the source of income in this way, as they do with fossil fuel. There is a genuine logic for the hereditary industry to the paintings that it paints, so there is a fight without stopping for survival for some of them. »
“The story to which everyone returns is that electricity does not work,” says Nakrani. “But it is no longer true. ” There are disorders with the additional W8 of the battery that cuts the cargo capacity of the truck, however, it is imaginable that the vehicle does not want a battery as giant as the Wittorator Oconsistement. “We believe they are doing 400 miles per day. But even in Germany, it is not strictly true for the law. If you are thinking about the speed limits in the United Kingdom, a heavy truck can travel to 56 miles consisting of the time. The driving force will have to have a minimum break of forty -five minutes after 4. 5 hours, then after 8 hours, it will have to have the next 8 at 12 hours of rest. For 4. 5 hours at 56 mph, the truck would only want 250 miles. “Even if someone manages a double motive force system, the truck will be tied by a desk for a while, so the load capacity during this consistent organ is quite plausible. “
Toyota has invested a fortune in its attempt to function hydrogen as a transport fuel. Array . . [+] (Photo through Yichuan Cao / Nurphoto Getty Images)
“I have not noticed any incredibly fuel for hydrogen,” Nakrani explains. “You will have to get a lot of fuel in this truck. You will have to avoid more as diesel because you cannot use so much power in your tanks. ” The inefficiency of hydrogen means that they are not viable for trucks that require massive battery capabilities. And they sell them when they did not sell hydrogen.
“We will have to be motivated through the customer requirement at the end,” explains Nakrani. “We have to look for things that simplify companies. Electric cars have turned out that they can do it at the giant scale in passenger cars, in vans, and is starting to produce it in trucks in China. The corporations will open the way, because once they have a truck, they will locate it in operation and migrate the total fleet. The jury was no longer released. If hydrogen will work, they will be niche cases, which in fact constitute less than 10% of the market. If you start with what the visitor wants and perceives well, the instances of use are clarified. Then it will locate the probabilities of hydrogen in a small niche segment compared to Bev’s use cases. »
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