New studies have been carried out that have compared the likes of battery and fuel cell cars to see which is better. The results appear to point in the direction of batteries. This may be surprising for some people but is down to the fact that hydrogen offers very little more than clean transportation whereas batteries can be used across the board for a range of different things.
The study compared the two types of cars based on a model where electric vehicles were more affordable. Lead author of the study, Markus Felgenhauer, a doctoral at the Technical University of Munich (TUM) says, “We found that investing in all-electric battery vehicles is a more economical choice for reducing carbon dioxide emissions, primarily due to their low cost and significantly higher energy efficiency.”
While electric cars are growing in popularity, there are still very few fuel cell cars around. However, the state where most new technology is developed and launched, California, has just awarded over $92 million to construct a network of 50 hydrogen refueling stations by the end of 2017. But currently, neither source is completely free of emissions. Some people connect to the grid to charge their battery electric cars and hydrogen cell car owners contribute through the industrial process used to extract the hydrogen in the first place.
And, the results of the tests were definitive. Felgenhauer said, “In terms of overall costs, we found that battery electric vehicles are better than fuel cell vehicles for reducing emissions. The analysis showed that to be cost competitive, fuel cell vehicles would have to be priced much lower than battery vehicles.” But, this is unlikely to happen in the near future, so therefore battery electric vehicles will remain the winners in being the greenest.
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