Will hydrogen fuel replace electric cars?  

It’s highly unlikely that hydrogen fuel will be a more effective replacement for ICE cars than electric vehicles. To start with, there’s just not that much demand; there are only two models of hydrogen fuel cell cars in the UK, with around 100 vehicles registered on our roads. Worldwide, there’s about 27 million electric vehicles, compared to about 72,000 hydrogen cars. 

The infrastructure needed for hydrogen cars is also pretty complicated. And it’s shrinking. There are 11 filling stations in the UK (only four of which are open to the public), and only 265 across Europe. Shell has closed its three UK filling stations, and all seven in California. 

Compared with the fact that anyone can charge their EV from home overnight, or drive to the local supermarket and charge their car while they shop, the dearth of hydrogen fuel stations is definitely a drawback.

This lack is because the infrastructure is hard to do well. It requires a lot of space, and it’s far more expensive to create the fuel (the production of hydrogen fuel uses five times more electricity than just putting it in a battery car) and, because it needs to be kept at very low temperatures, it’s more complicated (and expensive) to store and transport. 

Is there any role for hydrogen fuel? 

There is a space for hydrogen technology, and it’ll be for heavier vehicles. When you think about the logistics of heavy good vehicles, busses, trains or marine transport, they are probably going to be better served by hydrogen technology. And though we talk a lot about range anxiety, it’s still quite convenient to be able to charge a vehicle at home. It’s unlikely that we’ll be filling our cars with hydrogen at home as it’s pretty dangerous. So hydrogen becoming a reality for passenger vehicles is very unlikely.