all 6 comments

[–]iamonlyoneman 2 insightful - 1 fun2 insightful - 0 fun3 insightful - 1 fun -  (0 children)

Narrator: But it won't have its moment.

[–]Jiminy 1 insightful - 1 fun1 insightful - 0 fun2 insightful - 1 fun -  (4 children)

Too heavy and volatile to store

[–]Alienhunter 1 insightful - 1 fun1 insightful - 0 fun2 insightful - 1 fun -  (2 children)

I don't think so. It's mostly an issue of cost. It's cheaper to use gasoline still so that will be better than hydrogen, but if gasoline isn't an option for whatever reason hydrogen fuel cells can work well.

Some Japanese automakers have been gambling on hydrogen as opposed to western automakers going all in with electric batteries. I think that's the correct gamble because the hydrogen technology basically already exists with few downsides beyond cost, where the electric car tech really isn't to the point where it can just replace your gasoline car and be as useful as they have issues with range, charging time, weatherization, etc.

Hydrogen fuel cells work great for the most part they are just prohibitively expensive now and there is little reason to use them in place of gasoline. I suspect though if various gasoline bans get enforced you will see hydrogen as the choice of anyone who isn't living in some large urban center and is happy with the limited vehicle range electric vehicles have.

[–]chadwickofwv 1 insightful - 1 fun1 insightful - 0 fun2 insightful - 1 fun -  (1 child)

You really have no idea how hard it is to contain hydrogen.

[–]Alienhunter 1 insightful - 1 fun1 insightful - 0 fun2 insightful - 1 fun -  (0 children)

Containing hydrogen isn't that hard, people have been doing it for hundreds of years. Containing it safely? Sure that is a bit of a challenge but it isn't that huge. It is a bit silly to worry about the flammability of hydrogen though when we are comparing it to gasoline, open flame around either is not great.