BEVs present competitive challenge for hydrogen.

Power Progress reports on how advanced battery technology can compete successfully with hydrogen.

Speaking in one of Mission Hydrogen’s webinars, Maximilian Fichtner, director of the Center for Electrochemical Energy Storage Ulm-Karlsruhe (CELEST) in Germany, pointed to key questions in determining which route to pursue – including raw material supply, cost, safety and user-friendliness.

For internal combustion (IC) engine-powered vehicles and plug-in hybrid electric vehicles (PHEV), fuel consumption figures feature significantly in the analysis. For IC engines fuelled by natural gas or biogas, the 20-year global warming potential (GWP) of methane is also a factor, as it is with fuel cell electric vehicles (FCEV) powered by ‘grey’ hydrogen derived from natural gas or methane. For battery-electric vehicles (BEV), GHG emissions from battery manufacturing must be included, while FCEVs should embed hydrogen tank manufacturing.

Fichtner said that EVs, including PHEVs, offer reduced emissions over IC counterparts. Measured in CO₂ equivalent per kilometre (g CO₂e/km), IC-powered vehicles hovered around 250g, while PHEVs came in around 200g. Current BEVs rely on fossil fuel grid power, coming in around 90g, but a BEV run entirely on green electricity generates around 50g CO₂e/km.

FCEVs, which are usually supplied with grey hydrogen, measure around 200g CO₂e/km. If green hydrogen sources can be made more easily available, then that could fall to between 60 and 70g.

Fichtner also said that BEVs are clear winners in the efficiency stakes, at about 75 percent across the supply chain, compared to his calculations of around 18-20 per cent for FCEVs.