Tesla Trumps Toyota: Why Hydrogen Cars Can’t Compete With Pure Electric Cars

[caraher]

8. The infrastructure growth requirements are daunting for hydrogen

In the US, today, how many public hydrogen fueling stations are there? Twelve. Ten in California.

And a buildout of the required infrastructure is far more costly for hydrogen. Romm says

hydrogen fueling stations cost a LOT more than electric charging station, millions of dollars versus 1 to 5 percent of that cost for EV charging. In part that’s because of the related problem of a lack of FCVs on the road (versus some 234,000 plug-in vehicles in the U.S. alone). A third related reason is that more governments and companies have an incentive to build EV stations than hydrogen stations

Romm sums up the problem for hydrogen today this way:

The biggest problem hydrogen fuel cell vehicles face is that they deliver no obvious major consumer (or societal/environmental) benefit compared to the competition, but have a bunch of obvious consumer defects. These defects include high first cost, high fueling cost (compared to both gasoline and electricity), lack of fueling stations and lack of a nationwide fuel-delivery infrastructure — especially for renewable hydrogen.