Hyzon Motors has begun shipping hydrogen fuel cell trucks to customers – TechCrunch https://www.google.com/amp/s/techcrunch.com/2021/08/11/hyzon-motors-has-begun-shipping-hydrogen-fuel-cell-trucks-to-customers/amp/ Interesting startup
Sent from AT&T Yahoo Mail for iPhone On Sunday, August 15, 2021, 2:58 AM, EVDL Administrator via EV <ev@lists.evdl.org> wrote: I'm not an expert, just a longtime EV follower, but I think that when it comes to road vehicles, hydrogen had its chance and missed it. In 2001, the limitation on EVs was, and always had been, the battery. In 1999, the GM EV1 had had a 26kWh NiMH battery, and the Nissan Altra EV had had a 32 kWh lithium ion battery - more than respectable for the time. But NiMH was artificially locked out of real world EVs, and both types were hideously expensive. For all intents and purposes, in 2001 EV batteries were still lead. A typical conversion carried maybe 12kWh of usable capacity. Who here would have guessed then that 20 years hence we'd have production EVs at all, much less production EVs with batteries in the 50-100kWh capacity range? Who would have thought that 150kW public charging would start to appear on main highways, potentially charging a 50kWh battery in 20 minutes? In 2001, Toyota, Honda, Nissan, and Hyundai all had concept and/or demonstration FCEVs running. The feeble BEV range of the time opened a window of opportunity for them. Honda was the first to US market (California lease only) with the FCX Clarity in 2008. Between 2008 and 2015, they leased all of 48. (They now have another on offer, but again only in California, for reasons that will become clear in a moment.) After what they did with getting the Prius to market, you'd think that if anyone could make FCEVs a success, it would be Toyota. Toyota put the Mirai FCEV on US offer in 2015 (exactly 6 years ago to the day, in fact). It had a fairly impressive per-fillup range of 312 miles. Unfortunately, that hydrogen fillup cost about $85. And since hydrogen was nigh onto unavailable anywhere but in California (even today only 17 other states have *any* H2 stations), that was the only state where you could buy one - or drive one. That same year, 2015, you could buy a Tesla Model S 85D with 260+ miles of range and fill it up at any supercharger in any state. The S cost more than the Mirai did, but the cost of "free" supercharger use for as long as you owned it was still built into the price of the car. 2016 Sales Toyota Mirai: 1,034 Tesla Model S: 29,421 Now why do you suppose Tesla sold over 28 times as many in 2016? I have serious reservations about any automaker developing its own fueling infrastructure, but the fact is that Tesla built superchargers by the dozens and hundreds. How many hydrogen filling stations did Toyota build? EVs are a HUGE change in vehicle culture. Public charging for them is a HUGE investment in infrastructure. The reality of capitalism is that it resists such changes with all its might. Thus it's almost a miracle that we've seen BEVs become more or less mainstream, at least in Europe. A change like that doesn't come along often. TWO of each - BEVs and FCEVs, charging service and hydrogen fuel service - just aren't bloody likely to develop in one generation, let alone in a decade or two. BEV public charging is growing fast, and its power is too. BEVs are now practical for many drivers, sometimes as an only vehicle. Hydrogen fueling is barely growing at all. FCEVs still aren't practical transportation for anyone outside of a limited region in California. BEVs have all the momentum, and I just don't see that changing. Twenty years ago, FCEVs *could* have succeeded, if the manufacturers had really wanted them to. But they didn't, so FCEVs missed the road vehicle alt-fuel train. I could be wrong, but I don't think there'll be another. David Roden, EVDL moderator & general lackey To reach me, don't reply to this message; I won't get it. Use my offlist address here : http://evdl.org/help/index.html#supt = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = I think; therefore, I'm alone in the universe. -- Vern, "Over the Hedge" = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = _______________________________________________ Address messages to ev@lists.evdl.org No other addresses in TO and CC fields UNSUBSCRIBE: http://www.evdl.org/help/index.html#usub ARCHIVE: http://www.evdl.org/archive/ LIST INFO: http://lists.evdl.org/listinfo.cgi/ev-evdl.org -------------- next part -------------- An HTML attachment was scrubbed... URL: <http://lists.evdl.org/private.cgi/ev-evdl.org/attachments/20210815/565aa0e9/attachment.html> _______________________________________________ Address messages to ev@lists.evdl.org No other addresses in TO and CC fields UNSUBSCRIBE: http://www.evdl.org/help/index.html#usub ARCHIVE: http://www.evdl.org/archive/ LIST INFO: http://lists.evdl.org/listinfo.cgi/ev-evdl.org
