'Twill all depend on the availability of carbon-neutral hydrogen. The viability of hydrogen engines has never been in dispute - just that there are indisputably problems with onboard storage and the distribution of the fuel in the first place. People have pointed out that this is a bit "chicken or the egg" - there will be no wide-scale production of hydrogen for domestic consumption or indeed the distribution system necessary to make it available until there is a demand - and there will be no demand unless the fuel is easily available. It is obvious that the big fossil fuel cartels would cling onto hydrocarbon-based fuels as long as possible. They will change tack only when there is NO other course of action open to them. That is why there are currently only 17 hydrogen filling stations in the UK. I do not think it will become viable as a mainstream transportation fuel until it is cheap and green. When, and if, fusion power takes off, then the situation could change. Electricity "too cheap to meter" (now where have we heard that before?) will transform the game. Personally, I think that battery-powered EVs are a dead-end. The environmental cost of battery production, and the impossibility of providing the electrical infrastructure needed to support them make this obvious. Hydrogen, whether burnt in an ICE or used in a fuel cell application, could be the next step forward. That won't kill us all quite as quickly as fossil-based hydrocarbons.
i fugging hope so and doing the math, i've always seen battery's as the Betamax of future power sources for personnel transport. i have been given a wee bit of inside info from somebody who would deffo know within the tech side of a v,large motor manufacturer and it appears they are investing massively in hydrogen IC development. we have an abundance of renewables for creating hydrogen. lets do it.
Harry's Garage visit to JCB and hydrogen engines for heavy plant versus EV is very interesting. Find it on YouTube.
I think people are slowly starting to open their eyes to the finite future with EV’s. The world does need to understand that a simple tail pipe emission is not the bigger picture. Painful progress, but then it was always going to be
You would have thought they/we would have learnt that lesson with dieselgate, that the industry will tell us/governments/Greta what we want to hear and not the true costs/implications and yet here we go again both feet forward, blinkers on
This is why I’m not going down the leccy car route. Imagine in a few years time you go out and spend umpteen 10s of Thousands on your posh milk float then Hydrogen power hits the market? Sure, hydrogen vehicles will be expensive to begin with but the cost will fall, but not as quickly as that leccy thing you’ve bought. I work in the diesel power industry, battery UPS are our main rival, with everyone spouting green this and good for the environment that! I asked a few simple questions which nobody I’ve spoken to can answer. If a battery UPS is so good, why does it have a diesel generator as back up? How often does the batteries get changed?(this actually ranges from 3-7 years) What happens to the batteries once used? A work colleague left us to join a battery UPS company, he went to a site which held 2000, yes, 2000 batteries to keep the power up. These are all on trickle charge too. Sorry, rant over LONG LIVE DIESEL POWER!!
