Study Shows EVs Are Currently Three Times More Efficient Than Fuel Cell Vehicles

Automakers seem to agree that more zero-emission vehicles are needed to meet government regulations, and in turn combat climate change. But whether those cars should be powered by batteries or hydrogen fuel cells is still a hotly-debated topic. Adding fuel to the fire: a new study from European environment group Transport & Environment makes a strong argument for battery-electric cars.

T&E compared the overall energy efficiency of battery-electric cars, fuel-cell cars, and conventional internal-combustion models, and battery-powered cars came out on top. The study accounted for the entire "well to wheels" impact of each energy source—from production to transportation to energy losses involved in turning gasoline, hydrogen, and electricity into motion.

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TheSteve - 10/4/2017 11:43:34 PM

-1 Boost

That's consistent with the numbers I'm seeing. Another way to say that, is it takes 3x more electricity to move a hydrogen fuel cell vehicle one mile as it does a battery-driven EV.

In North America, we get about 2/3 of our electricity from burning stuff, so to drive a fuel cell car one mile, you burn 3x the fossil fuel required to make the usable hydrogen fuel, as compared to charging an EV battery.

The optimistic "well to wheels" numbers I see say TODAY'S EVs are about 6% cleaner than ICE. That means when you factor in what it takes to make hydrogen fuel to power a fuel cell car, it's between 2.5 to 3 time *dirtier* than ICE, so you better ignore how that hydrogen fuel is made if you want to keep feeling good about that "clean" fuel cell vehicle.

TomM - 10/5/2017 8:06:50 AM

+1 Boost

Just as current battery technology has reduced the cost of driving an EV over the GM EV1 - one cannot assume that only currently OLD technology will be used to produce Hydrogen for Fuel cell vehicle - there have been several new discoveries that could lead to cheaper Hydrogen without using lots of electricity. I would expect the age of the Fuel Cell is at least 30 years off - and in that time - things might be very different. Since I also expect the age of EVs to be at least 20 years off - or more -because we do not have enough electricity anyway to cover high usage of EVs - it is going to be interesting.

One has to assume that a study that favors the current EV - will use the worst way of creating hydrogen - that is the problem with all studies like this.

ANd we still do not have all the possibilities in ICE engines covered as well.

Long after I am dead - there will still be ICE engined vehicles.