Hydrogen Has Failed In Cars. It Won’t Be Powering Trucks Either

https://www.forbes.com/sites/jamesmorris/2025/02/08/hydrogen-has-failed-in-cars-and-it-wont-be-powering-trucks-either/

by shares_inDeleware

4 comments

  1. Too hard to monetize the most prolific substance in our solar system?

  2. How could anyone ever think an energy storage method that loses 70% of the energy could compete with one that loses 12%?

    ~2.5X more energy per mile.

    1. Hydrogen Storage Pathway

    Renewable energy → Electrolysis → Compression/Liquefaction → Storage → Fuel Cell → Electric Motor

    1. Electrolysis Losses (~30%)
    • Splitting water into hydrogen and oxygen using electricity is only about 65–75% efficient.

    2. Compression/Liquefaction Losses (~10-30%)
    • Hydrogen is stored as a compressed gas (~90% efficiency) or a cryogenic liquid (~70% efficiency). Energy is lost during compression, cooling, and maintaining storage conditions.

    3. Fuel Cell Conversion Losses (~40%)
    • Hydrogen is converted back into electricity in a fuel cell, typically with 50–60% efficiency.

    4. Power Electronics & Motor Losses (~10%)
    • The electricity from the fuel cell is converted and supplied to the electric motor, with additional inefficiencies in the inverter and motor itself.

    Overall Efficiency:
    • The combined efficiency from renewable electricity to motor output is around 25–35%.

    2. Battery Storage Pathway

    Renewable energy → Battery Charging → Battery Storage → Discharge → Electric Motor

    1. Battery Charging & Storage Losses (~10-15%)
    • Charging a battery has inefficiencies, with lithium-ion batteries typically achieving 85–90% efficiency.

  3. It’s simply cost.

    Not just the atrociously low well-to-wheel efficiency which makes fueling them expensive but also the significantly higher cost of the infrastructure which has to be recouped via a higher price at the pump…as well as the higher maintenance cost of hydrogen trucks.

    Cars live and die by overall cost. Trucks *much* more so.

    Hydrogen will fail in *any* energetic application: Cars, trucks, energy storage, heating, …

  4. We can already see how truck are using EV charging infrastruture for cars without many issues. No need for expensive hydrogen filling stations. Simplicity wins.

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