What gets missed in this conversation is the transportation of hydrogen. If all cars went to hydrogen, firstly we'd need to triple at least the electricity supply that you'd need for EVs. Then you'd have to store it with crazy losses at crazy cold temperatures and crazy high pressure which takes enormous revenue and infrastructure. Then, and this is the crazy part, you'd need to have 4+x as many fuel trucks because even liquid hydrogen is 4x less volumetrically dense than gasoline. It would be $$$$$$$$$$.
As for the efficiency discussion, real numbers make this make more more clear. For hydrogen fuel call vehicles it's really just a regular EV with a battery that uses hydrogen through a fuel cell to charge the battery. So with that context, here's some real numbers you can look up yourself:
Start with 100KWk of electricity from the grid or whatever.
For ev
Lose 1-2% in transmission = 98kwh left
Lose 2-3% in local distribution = 95kwh left
Lose 10-15% in charging = 80kwh left
For HFCV:
Let's assume hydrogen made right at the point of generation so there are zero losses
Lose 20-25% in electrolizing H2O to H2 = 75-80kwh
Lose 5-35% in compressing H2 for storage and transport (plus unknown H2 that must be vented due to building during storage and losses as the molecule is storage) = 49-76kwh left
Lose 7-46% in charging stations due to fueling operations = 26-70kwh left
Then, you'd have to calculate all the extra hydrogen you'd burn shipping the hydrogen around. Trucks would require 4-12x the number of vehicles due to hydrogen being so much less dense than gasoline. It's a non starter.
The only advantage to hydrogen fuel cell vehicles is they're quicker to charge. That's it. Not a single other advantage. Battery capabilities are advancing so quickly that charging times will not be
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