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Everything You Need to Know About Hydrogen Vehicles

Find out everything you need to know about hydrogen vehicles

When talking about emission free vehicles, electric is the first thing that comes to mind. But there is another contender: hydrogen vehicles. Find out everything you need to know about hydrogen vehicles; how they work, are they safe, and the pros and cons of them.

What is a Hydrogen Vehicle?

A hydrogen vehicle is powered by a series of chemical reactions between hydrogen and oxygen, rather than being powered by an electric charged battery.

They use the same kind of electric motor to turn the wheels but use a fuel-cell stack in which hydrogen (H2) passes through the membrane to combine with oxygen (O2) from the air. This produces the electricity that turns the wheels.

They are commonly referred to as HFCV (Hydrogen Fuel Cell Vehicle).

What is Hydrogen?

Hydrogen is the most abundant chemical element in the world and can be found everywhere. It exists naturally in nearly all living things and is a colourless, odourless non-toxic gas which can be stored indefinitely without energy loss.

How Does a Hydrogen Vehicle Work?

A hydrogen cell is made from a positively charged anode and a negatively charged cathode. These are put in contact with an electrolyte. A catalyst then kick starts a chemical reaction, which in turns creates electricity, water, and heat. These cells are combined in stacks so there is enough energy to power the car.

The hydrogen is stored in a high-pressure cylinder. The electricity produced is stored in the battery, and the car only emits water vapour from the exhaust, making them completely zero emission.

Are Hydrogen Vehicles Safe?

A pressurised container of a highly flammable gas doesn’t seem like the best thing to be carrying should you have an accident.

However, the tanks are designed to survive even the highest-speed, hard impact crashes, without leaking or exploding.

No injuries or deaths have been recorded in relation to the hydrogen components in HFCVs, in the small number of them sold to date.

What is the Range on a Hydrogen Vehicle?

Most hydrogen cars can travel for 300 miles on a full tank, which is more than the average electric car.

However, fuelling stations are few and far between, with only 15 hydrogen fuelling stations available in the UK currently.

How Do You Fuel a Hydrogen Vehicle?

A hydrogen car can be refilled in around five minutes. You use a fuel pump, like filling up a petrol or diesel vehicle.

It is a skill that needs to be mastered – you need to properly align the heavy nozzle and ensure that it is sealed correctly for the car and pump to be able to communicate electronically successfully.

However, hydrogen stations can only fuel between two to five cars before they need to go offline to repressurise. In the UK, hydrogen costs around £12 per kg. This means that fuelling a 62-mile journey will cost you around £11.40.

Pros of a Hydrogen Vehicle

There are several pros to hydrogen-fuelled vehicles.

They are emission free. They only produced water vapor, which means they don’t produce any harmful emissions into the atmosphere. This also makes them exempt from Clean Air Zone charges.
They can accelerate faster than ICE vehicles.
Hydrogen is renewable and abundant. Once the infrastructure is in place, it will be the most sustainable energy source.
They are quick to refuel. You only need around five minutes to refuel a HFCV, opposed to a minimum of 30 for an EV.

Cons of a Hydrogen Vehicle

As good as hydrogen vehicles sound in theory, they do have a variety of cons, especially for those who live in the UK.

There are an extremely limited number of fuelling stations. With only 15 in the UK, driving a HFCV would only be a feasible option if you lived close to one of these stations.
They are more complex to manufacture. They require many more materials to create than electric cars, so they have a negative impact on the environment in that respect.
The production of hydrogen is less efficient than the production of electricity.
They are more expensive to run. Currently, hydrogen is more expensive than petrol or diesel and electric cars.

What Hydrogen Vehicles are Available Currently?

There are only two hydrogen vehicles available to buy in the UK currently.

Toyota Mirai

The Toyota Mirai has a sleek style and has a range of over 400 miles. It has the same intelligent features that you’d find in an electric car, such as a 12.3” multimedia touch screen, park assist with four cameras and 12 clearance sonars, and a digital rear view mirror.

Prices for the Mirai start from around £50,000 – you’ll only get an exact price if you enquire on their website.

Hyundai Nexo

The Nexo boasts a driving range of 413 miles and a max speed of 111 miles per hour. It has the same size screen as the Mirai and has Apple CarPlay and Android Auto functionality. The car also comes with a 5-year unlimited mileage warranty.

With the price tag starting at £68,000, the Nexo costs more than the Mirai by quite a bit.

Is the Future Hydrogen?

Hypothetically speaking, hydrogen could replace fossil fuels that provide around 80% of the world energy supply and emit the bulk of global greenhouse emissions.

With one of the biggest challenges surrounding hydrogen vehicles being the infrastructure, it could be a while before we see many of them on our UK roads. Hydrogen refuelling stations are expensive to build, as are the cars themselves.

Like with electric cars, the building process will get gradually cheaper – but we don’t expect them to overtake EVs in the sustainability race anytime soon.