Resident Posted February 7 Share Posted February 7 With the latest being Volvo, adding to Ford, GM, VW/Audi Group, Toyota & Honda, all cancelling plans to develop, expand or even continue production of battery EVs, does this signal the end for them? Ford and Volvo haven't said what comes next however reports state that Toyota, Honda and GM are going to focus on Hydrogen, with the latter pair opting to work together. Is this the end of the road for battery? Hydrogen fuel cell tech has been in production cars since around 2007, Honda's FCX Clarity. It showed it does work. Unfortunately I think it came too early. I think if it came at the time the push for EVs started it would have won over BEV. However because it came too early it was shunned and forgotten about. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
RollingJ Posted February 7 Share Posted February 7 Interesting, @Resident - I wasn't aware of that, but it is no great surprise to be honest. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
geared Posted February 7 Share Posted February 7 To be fair most of those who are not going to continue development are also the same ones who've not really bothered with it in the first place. VW group and Ford especially, their offerings have been shockingly poor. Weirdly Toyota are well known for being early to the market with an EV, Ford also have an electric Focus on the market, over a decade ago! Seemingly, they stopped bothering with it, while other companies went in for it big time. The market now seems split between the big hitters like Tesla, and players from SE Asia. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Hopman Posted February 7 Share Posted February 7 A surge in the Hydrogen market could be good for ITM in Sheffield. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Pyrotequila Posted February 7 Share Posted February 7 Hydrogen fuel cells do have the potential to replace ICE, but not until the price comes down and there's the infrastructure in place. Unfortunately it's way more hassle to install underground storage tanks than it is to wire up some charging points. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
geared Posted February 7 Share Posted February 7 It is, but you only end up with a slow 7kw charger. Ok if you're just doing some shopping locally, but at service stations where people need to charge up and go they're pointless. The fast charger stations do end up with big install costs as they usually have a couple of containers full of batteries and such on site to enable the fast charging. 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Chekhov Posted February 7 Share Posted February 7 1 hour ago, Pyrotequila said: Hydrogen fuel cells do have the potential to replace ICE, but not until the price comes down and there's the infrastructure in place. Unfortunately it's way more hassle to install underground storage tanks than it is to wire up some charging points. Not sure about that P. What about people who do not have their own drive ? And those charging points need power, which the grid cannot at present deliver Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Andy_terrier Posted February 7 Share Posted February 7 wouldn't you look to repurpose existing facilities at service stations? Big undergound tanks in place already. If you make 1 or 2 on every forecourt a Hydrogen pump instead and as petrol is phased out, phase in more hydrogen pumps? 2 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Pyrotequila Posted February 7 Share Posted February 7 5 hours ago, Chekhov said: Not sure about that P. What about people who do not have their own drive ? And those charging points need power, which the grid cannot at present deliver I meant in the sense of a hydrogen fuel station, rather than some at home storage pod 👍 @Andy_terrier that would be a good solution, I assume anyway. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
geared Posted February 8 Share Posted February 8 19 hours ago, Andy_terrier said: wouldn't you look to repurpose existing facilities at service stations? Big undergound tanks in place already. If you make 1 or 2 on every forecourt a Hydrogen pump instead and as petrol is phased out, phase in more hydrogen pumps? Those are petrol/diesel tanks tho, they wouldn't be any good at storing hydrogen. It'd need all new stuff installing. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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