- There was a time when hydrogen
was presented as the future of fuel for our cars.
These vehicles promised things like longer driving distances
faster refueling and eco-friendly energy.
George W. Bush, remember him,
liked hydrogen fuel cells so much
that he offered $1.3 billion in funding
to get these cars on the road.
This all sounds fantastic.
So why aren't we all scooting around on our own
hydrogen horseless carriages?
The technology had plenty of pretty dope features
that appeal to consumers,
but nobody really seems to talk about these cars anymore.
Why did the hydrogen vehicle lose its traction
after all the hype that was surrounding it?
Is it actually better for the environment than gasoline?
And who or what killed the hydrogen car?
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Now let's get back to Wheelhouse.
Seriously, these things are sick.
In 1966, we got things like the Porsche 911 S
the Lamborghini Mira and the Pontiac GTO,
but what never made it into the spotlight that year
was the world's first hydrogen fuel cell car.
Hydrogen vehicles have been around for quite some time,
but have recently been advertised
as the future for passenger vehicles
and civilian transportation.
Hydrogen fuel cells run off of pressurized hydrogen,
that has a refill time equivalent to a gas filled vehicle
and brags about things like zero emissions
with literal water coming out of the exhaust.
This sounds great, especially compared to electric vehicles
which can sometimes take run an hour to charge at a station.
Hydrogen seems great in theory so what happened?
Well, there are a few reasons
why hydrogen cars lost traction and publicity,
it all boils down to five factors,
price, convenience, performance,
the environment, and competition
Buying a car's One of the biggest financial investments
someone can make next to a house.
And the biggest determining factor
when it comes to buying a vehicle is inevitably the price.
There are three hydrogen fuel cell vehicles
available on the market right now.
The Toyota Mirai the Hyundai Nexo and the Honda Clarity.
The 2021 Toyota Mirai is the cheapest of the bunch
starting at $50,000.
But if you play your cards right
with the right incentives and financing
you can pick a brand new one
for just shy of 18 grand, pretty big bargain.
The sticker price seems to be a really good deal
but how much does it cost to refuel?
The average price for hydrogen fuel is about
$16.50 per kilogram yes, kilogram.
Hydrogen is measured by weight,
much different to how gasoline is measured,
which is by volume.
Each hydrogen fuel cell vehicle holds about
five to six kilograms of hydrogen,
traveling up to 400 miles on one fill up.
So even though six kilograms of hydrogen
can make a car move up to 400 miles,
the cost of a tank is over $80, which is pretty pricey
considering the more cost-effective alternatives,
like hybrids, but we'll get to that in a second.
There are only 45 hydrogen refueling stations
in the United States.
And similar to how buyers are afraid of hydrogen
because of the price tag,
companies are afraid of hydrogen for the same reason.
The cost to construct just one refueling station
can amount to around $2 million, which is way more
than your average gas station or electric charging station.
To make matters worse most stations just have one pump.
With such a small customer base,
it's hard for companies to commit such large sums of money
towards hydrogen stations
with no promise of return on investment. Makes sense.
There is some good news though for hydrogen car owners
and that comes through a little ray of sunshine
called manufacturer fuel incentives.
Companies like Toyota understand that hydrogen,
for the time being, is pretty expensive
and hope to Lure in customers by offering buyers
$15,000 credit towards fuel costs.
I think that's sick as hell, thank you Toyota, very much.
This fuel credit is a nice benefit
to anyone buying a hydrogen car, but the catch is
that you need to spend that $15,000
on fuel within the first three years of owning a car.
Once that runs out
customers have to pay the high hydrogen prices,
with a very limited selection of refueling stations.
There is one more glimmer of hope though
for hydrogen car believers.
California government subsidies.
These subsidies offer millions of dollars
towards the construction of hydrogen fueling stations,
and seek to have over a hundred stations in place by 2025.
This is still significantly less
than the tens of thousands of gas stations
and EV charging stations that scatter the US.
So only time will tell if hydrogen stations
become a prevalent form of refilling.
But it's a step in the right direction.
For now with the average fuel tank North of $80
and the exorbitant construction costs
for refilling stations,
things aren't looking very promising for hydrogen cars.
The hydrogen fuel cell market relies on
subsidies and incentives to stay afloat and keep costs down.
But even with help from the government and manufacturers
consumers just aren't interested in hydrogen cars
as much as gas or electric.
Why is this?
Well, let's talk about convenience or the lack thereof.
We talked earlier about how there are only
45 hydrogen refueling stations in the US,
mostly in California.
For some perspective,
there are 16 red lobster seafood restaurants
for every one hydrogen refueling station in America.
That's a 16 to one crustacean, station ratio.
With only 45 stations across the US,
hydrogen car buyers are forced to conduct their daily lives
within the vicinity of these stations.
So if you live outside of some large cities in California
you might have some trouble driving anywhere.
The painful lack of convenience
from the shy number of stations
is very dissuading to consumers.
But the good news is you can leave LA
and go on that boy's trip to Vegas.
But if you've taken your hydrogen car,
you might end up stranded there.
I guess, with a hydrogen vehicle,
whatever happens in Vegas, literally stays in Vegas.
Infrastructure offers convenience
and without the adequate infrastructure
hydrogen cars are a huge hassle.
So to visit my parents up in Atascadero
what I would have to do, I've thought about this,
I would have to leave LA
stop in Santa Barbara to top off, get to my parents
and then limit my driving at all while I'm up there.
And then refill as I'm coming back down this
Santa Barbara which would be, it'd be kind of dicey.
I would not feel great about that.
So does the hydrogen car offer anything
that can make up for the severe lack of convenience?
Let's talk about what we really care about
here at Donut all right?
Performance. Sure hydrogen cars are expensive
and a pain to refuel.
But if they're faster and more fun to drive
then maybe they might be worthy of consideration right?
Well, maybe, but that doesn't matter
because most commercial vehicles are far
from performance vehicles.
The 2021 Toyota Mirai goes from zero to 60
in 9.1 seconds and reaches a blazing top speed
of a hundred six miles per hour.
It's not awful, but compare this to something like
the Tesla model three which goes zero to 60 in 3.1 seconds.
It's a bit of a different story.
So is there a hydrogen car that can compete
with established performance cars?
The answer is yes.
Take a look at the hydrogen powered Hyperion XP-1
which boasts a range of a thousand miles,
a thousand horsepower
and claims to go from zero to 60 in 2.2 seconds
reaching a top speed of 220,
and even better the car looks like
the illegitimate child of a Tron bike and a Bugatti Chiron.
This thing is super impressive and I want one.
So where could I buy one?
Well, unfortunately for customers,
the car it's not available for purchase yet.
And when it is, it's safe to say
that the price will be extremely high.
You're definitely not gonna wanna hit the dragstrip
in your Toyota Mirai anytime soon,
but clearly hydrogen technology
is capable of creating speed,
it's just much more expensive
and requires more fuel cell stacks in order to reach speeds,
comparable to a regular sports car.
Hydrogen cars are marketed as green easy,
energy efficient vehicles, much like Toyota Prius.
This makes sense after all they are hydrogen powered.
So unfortunately, most manufacturers
aren't building these things to be speed demons.
But who knows no car's truly off limits
for a dedicated tuner.
So maybe we'll see a few Mirais at the strip sometime soon.
If companies are gonna market hydrogen cars as green,
You would assume they're great for the environment
but I'm not so sure as green as people say they are.
Why is this?
Hydrogen cars are heralded as zero emission angels
spitting out water rather than pollutants.
How does the car produce only water?
Look, I spent a lot of time in college
playing Rocket League and watching movies.
So I don't feel very qualified to explain this.
Here's Jerry
(upbeat music)
- Compressed hydrogen runs down a pipe
to a positive terminal in the fuel cell.
Then oxygen from the air runs down a second pipe
to the negative terminal.
The positive terminal, it's made up of platinum, which acts
as a catalyst that helps speed up the chemical reaction.
When hydrogen atoms reached the catalyst
they split up into hydrogen ions
which are protons and electrons.
And hydrogen ions they are just hydrogen atoms
without their electrons.
Since hydrogen only has one proton and one electron,
a hydrogen ion is literally just a proton.
The positively charged protons
are attracted to the negative terminal and peel off
running through the electrolyte.
Only protons have the ability
to pass through the electrolyte
since it's a special polymer.
The free electrons now free of their protons,
they flow through the outer circuit towards the motor.
As they do so they power the electric motor
which drives the car's wheels
eventually arriving at the negative terminal.
And at that negative terminal, the protons and electrons
recombine with oxygen from the air
in a chemical reaction creating H2O
or what I like to call water.
This is the water that comes right out of the exhaust.
You can drink that water if you wanted, but I wouldn't.
- So it's safe to assume
that these cars are good for the environment, right?
I mean, all they use is hydrogen for fuel
and it's shooting out water.
So are hydrogen cars actually better for the environment
than gas cars?
Well, let's look at how hydrogen is produced.
Hydrogen does not exist in a pure state
and must be separated from other molecules
in a process called electrolysis.
This process uses a lot of power.
In order for a hydrogen fuel cell to work,
it uses electricity to create hydrogen
at the production plant, and then turns that hydrogen
back into electricity to power the vehicle's motors.
This is called the energy vector transition.
Let's take a hundred Watts of energy.
To create hydrogen we must pass it through
water via electrolysis.
This is only 75% energy efficient.
Now the hydrogen must be compressed, chilled
and transported to the station.
Once it's pumped into the car,
it must be turned back into electricity.
This is only 60% efficient.
The energy then must power the motor
but this is only 95% efficient,
because it gives off energy such as heat.
Put this all together, and only 38 of our 100 Watts
are actually used to run the car.
So fuel cells are only 38% efficient.
That's not great, but it could be worse.
How does it compare to gas and electric cars?
Combustion engines are notoriously inefficient,
letting off enough heat
that leaves them with only about 25 to 35% efficient.
So hydrogen is decently better than gasoline powered cars.
But what about electric vehicles?
Since electric vehicles use the electricity directly
without having to convert it into anything,
they make about 80% efficiency.
This is twice as efficient as a fuel cell vehicle
making hydrogen cars inefficient
when compared to their electric cousins.
So what does this mean for our environment?
Well, hydrogen cars are about
half as efficient as an electric vehicle
meaning they required twice as much energy to power.
This energy is taken from things like fossil fuels,
nuclear power plants and windmills.
No car is completely green,
but hydrogen is a surprisingly worse alternative
than EV vehicles, but still more efficient
than a gas powered cars, it's a weird middle ground.
If hydrogen is to succeed it needs a lot more research,
money and government legislation thrown at it.
And it will take years to produce adequate infrastructure
for these vehicles.
If all this happens, hydrogen cars
may have a chance at securing a spot
in the automotive industry,
but for now something else is stealing all hydrogens
hype and funding, reducing the chances at a hydrogen future.
What is this?
Well, I actually already told you.
If anything can be blamed
for the death of the hydrogen vehicle it's the EV.
Companies like Tesla came onto the scene at the same time
hydrogen fuel cells had some interest,
but with the success of the electric vehicle
came disinterest in hydrogen.
The market lean towards electric cars
and lithium battery technology began to advance quickly
beyond hydrogen vehicles.
EVs took the spotlight and tons of money and research
went into developing and perfecting lithium batteries.
Hydrogen on the other hand was left in the dust.
It's kinda like when the Dreamcast came out
and it was super mind blowing with its crazy graphics,
but then the PS two, and X-Box came out like a year later
with even better graphics.
There simply just wasn't enough room
for hydrogen fuel cells to succeed.
Hydrogen cars tried to fix a problem that to be honest,
didn't really need to be solved.
And it didn't even succeed at fixing the problem
in the first place.
Hydrogen cars can run
exceptionally long distance on hydrogen.
But the factors like price, performance
and convenience put the nail in the coffin
for hydrogen fuel cell cars.
Now you might be thinking, hey
the technology is super impressive.
So if it's not gonna work for commercial vehicles
where can we apply it?
Well, surprisingly enough,
hydrogen fuel cells are being used
for many other things today outside of cars.
Many warehouses, such as Amazon use
hydrogen powered forklifts to move their inventory around.
Very smart when you're indoors.
Companies are looking to make heaters buses
and even power sources for cities
and hydrogen presents itself as a great option
for auxiliary power in rural areas.
NASA uses hydrogen fuel cells on their space shuttles
as a source of electricity, and many manufacturers
are looking to create hydrogen powered semi-trucks.
There is a use for it,
it's just that the car space already found a good solution.
Hydrogen cars were supposed to be the future
but they weren't, and it makes sense why.
Maybe one day despite all the current barriers
some technological breakthrough will occur
and hydrogen cars will rule the road.
But for now though,
hydrogen cars remain an expensive dumpster fire
with a somewhat bleak future
and gas and electric cars will continue to
steal the hearts of consumers.
Just make that Marai do zero to 60 in like three seconds,
and we're good.
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- Hey, thanks for watching Wheelhouse.
Pretty interesting stuff if you ask me.
I think that there's a future for hydrogen
just not necessarily in passenger cars, but that's okay.
If you saw that other handsome guy in this video
and you wanna check out more of Jeremiah's stuff
I'll leave a bumper to bumper right here.
We mentioned the Prius a little bit,
and hey if you're feeling nostalgic,
there's a up to speed on Prius right here.
Follow Donut on all social media @donutmedia.
Follow me @nolanjsykes be kind,
take care of each other.
See you later.