Should I Buy a Hydrogen Fuel Cell Vehicle or an Electric Vehicle?

Today, as consumers look for more environmentally friendly ways of traveling, two options they may consider are hydrogen fuel cell vehicles and electric vehicles.

Years ago, people thought that hydrogen fuel cell cars would be the next big thing, but then electric cars came around and took over the spotlight before hydrogen cars could get up and running. Did this prevent a better replacement for gas-powered cars from being widely utilized, or did hydrogen vehicles deserve to disappear from the spotlight? To answer this question, let's take a look at how these two types of vehicles compare to each other in a variety of categories.

According to the EPA, 27% of greenhouse gas emissions come from transportation.

Effect on the Environment

First and foremost, I would like to take a look at how the production and usage of these cars impact the environment since that is one of their main points of marketing. Currently, the main environmental benefit of hydrogen fuel cell and electric vehicles is that both of these vehicles do not release harmful emissions into the atmosphere. Fuel cell vehicles release water into the atmosphere, while electric vehicles have no emissions.

Fuel for both hydrogen fuel cell and electric vehicles can be made using renewable energy, however, much of the energy used for powering them today is not renewable. Once these fuels are made using renewable energy, both hydrogen and electric vehicles will become even more environmentally friendly.

The production of hydrogen and electric vehicles both negatively affect the environment as the materials used to make them must be mined from the earth. This mining can cause water supplies to become contaminated, harm fertile soil, and destroy habitats for animals. While mining is required to produce traditional gas-powered vehicles too, electric cars require lithium for their batteries. Since lithium is a rather rare metal and often not in very high concentrations, mining lithium is more environmentally destructive in comparison to other minerals.

Despite the negative effects that these vehicles do have on the environment, overall, they are still better than traditional gas-powered vehicles.

Cost

Both hydrogen fuel cell vehicles and electric vehicles are more expensive than gas powered cars. However, the cost of a fuel cell vehicle is far more than that of an electric vehicle, with the cost of the cheapest hydrogen fuel cell vehicle being around $50,000 and the cost of the cheapest electric vehicle being around $30,000. In addition to the cost of the vehicle itself, the fuel for hydrogen vehicles is much more expensive than the electricity used to fuel an electric vehicle.

Infrastructure

In order to use either of these types of vehicles, infrastructure has to be created to transport the fuel and electricity. Currently, electric vehicle charging stations are at many businesses around the US, and the vehicles can be charged at homes. Hydrogen fuel stations, however, are not nearly as common. Today, all but one of the charging stations in the US are in California. This makes it extremely impractical for anyone outside of California to use hydrogen vehicles right now (Sommer, 2022).

Convenience

Despite all of the down sides to hydrogen vehicles, there are some benefits to them over electric vehicles. One of these benefits is that hydrogen vehicles can be refueled in much less time than electric vehicles. While electric vehicles take upwards of 45 minutes to charge, hydrogen fuel cell vehicles take just five minutes since they are refueled in a similar way to gasoline-powered cars (Sommer, 2022).

Size

In electric vehicles the size of the battery has to increase in order to power a larger vehicle. In hydrogen fuel cell vehicles, however, when the size of the vehicle increases, the size of the fuel cell does not increase very much (Sommer, 2022). Because of this, hydrogen fuel cells would work well for powering large vehicles, such as planes, trucks, and trains.

Overview

All in all, for now, most consumers should stick to electric vehicles because the infrastructure to support them is already very well developed. Additionally, electric vehicles are more economical for the everyday consumer. However, due to their faster refueling times and size benefits, hydrogen fuel cells are strong contenders for use in larger commercial vehicles once more fueling stations are established.

Sources

Sommer, F. (2022, January 6). What is green hydrogen vs. blue hydrogen and why it matters. CNBC. Retrieved May 22, 2022, from https://www.cnbc.com/2022/01/06/what-is-green-hydrogen-vs-blue-hydrogen-and-why-it-matters.html