As the world is looking to turn away from fossil fuels to more eco-friendly options, electric vehicles became extremely popular – but what about Hydrogen Cars? Are they better than electric motors? Could this be the future of transportation? Elon Musk said that hydrogen technology is incredibly dumb and that is not a long-term solution. At the same time, Japan announced that they have the intention to become the first hydrogen society, introducing hydrogen-powered cars and charging stations.

Are Hydrogen Cars better than Electric?

Hydrogen could be an extremely good fuel, as compressed Hydrogen has a specific energy of nearly 40.000 watts per kilogram. In comparison to Lithium batteries, this is a huge difference as the battery has only 278 watts per kilogram – or less. Hydrogen could power a vehicle without adding too much weight. Not only that but the vehicle could be refueled in under five minutes, while electric cars have to be charged for 1 to 3 hours. While looking at this information, you must be thinking, why are we not using Hydrogen instead?

Well, there are more than few problems with it. First of all, the cost of Hydrogen is 8 times more expensive than plain electricity. That means, for the same mileage passed for $1 of electricity, you would pay $8 in Hydrogen. Hydrogen is much more expensive to produce and store. The sole production of Hydrogen is complicated as it needs to be drawn from water, methane, and similar organic matters. Not only that, but the process of acquiring Hydrogen causes pollution.

Storing Hydrogen is also a huge problem and it takes a lot of energy. So, basically, there would be so much electricity spent on just storing the Hydrogen and transportation, the price would be sky-high. With energy loss during transportation and in storage coming up to 40% (or more), this turns into an extremely complicated process. So, if you have seen the videos where they claim Hydrogen Cars will be the biggest threat to Elon Musk, don’t fall for it. Mate Rimac and Elon Musk are both working on improving batteries, their efficiency, and their ability to recycle. So, in the future, electricity will probably be the source we will completely depend on.