Separating Hydrogen Facts From Fiction - It's Not All Sunshine & Roses, But It's Not All Bad Either

No new tech seems to cause as many online fights as hydrogen. Is it good, it is bad? Where does the hydrogen come from? Why are we trying to make fetch happen? Well, I talk about all that and more in this video, but the bottom line here is: This isn't a zero sum game. H2 doesn't make sense for all applications, or indeed a plurality of applications, but I agree with many that there is a place for it in our zero emissions future. What place exactly? Let's try to find that out together,.

00:00 Introduction
01:57 Hydrogen (Prototype) Vehicles
05:04 Hydrogen Fuel Cells
08:36 The Hydrogen Itself
11:05 Some Challenges (and Solutions)
26:50 Final Thoughts

[paul]

Alex seems like he reads white papers for fun but is still cool at parties.

[directorjustin]

When I want automotive entertainment, I have several channels to pick from. When I want automotive knowledge, I have Alex. 👍

[bayoomole]

I've said this on previous videos, but I feel it bares repeating. Alex is the one auto reviewer where 1) Is so damn knowledgeable that he could teach a university course 2) Is very impartial, and will clearly state his preferences and biases, yet it never feels like he's shoving those preferences in my face, or forcing me to share them 3) Doesn't make me feel bad for not liking Japanese cars or maybe not as interested in V8's or not really caring about exhaust sounds or really being into EV's. He gives me the facts, and features and leaves me to like or hate or whatever. And a really cool point: Super respectful to the vehicles he reviews and to us the viewers.

[Luma_]

Yet another video of Alex being one of, if not, the most knowledgeable person in the automotive media industry

[ardenthebibliophile]

I think the best use case for HFC vehicles is in freight trucks. Truckers actually need long ranges and quick fueling, and warehouse complexes tend to be colocated making natural locations for hydrogen fueling stations.

[jooky]

As an engineer in the hydrogen industry, excellent and unbiased video!

[BensEcoAdvntr]

I appreciate your take on the subject. I’m not anti-hydrogen so much as I’ve been following it since around the year 2000 and seen the lack of real progress. Practical H2 vehicles are perpetually ten years away from commercialization. And the economics of fueling are still something of an enigma. It’s fine if companies want to dabble in the technology. But hanging your hat on it seems a fool’s errand

[daniel-oel]

Truly appreciate a car reviewer who would spend time and effort posting this kind of content. It wont bring a lot of views or subscribers, but you still did it. I can sense your care for our planet from bottom of the heart. I wish we have more scientific minded person like you to be the leader of the government - we would have more useful things done for sure.

[lucaswong]

I rarely comment on videos but it's so refreshing to hear objective commentary on this issue for once. You make such a good point about full-sized trucks/SUVs being the ideal candidates for FCEVs and I wish manufacturers took that into account more. A hydrogen Tundra that could tow a trailer for a few hundred miles and fill up in 5 minutes would be the perfect way to showcase FCEVs for the North American market.

Although I understand why that wouldn't be feasible for other markets, it's baffling that Toyota ended up with the Mirai, a cramped and unremarkable sedan that lacks commonality with other Toyota products, instead of something like a hydrogen RAV-4. It's also baffling that there is a plug-in hydrogen CR-V while the regular plug-in CR-V isn't even available in North America despite the fact it would fly off dealer lots. FCEV research might not be a zero sum game but that still seems like poor resource allocation, especially for a company with limited resources like Honda.

[darrinv]

Great video Alex. I’m one of those folks that side eyes Hydrogen as a last gasp push by the Fossil Fuel industry. I was unaware of California’s 33% renewable requirement and would feel better about Hydrogen if CA’s renewable requirements became a Federal Standard.

[drbunk]

Another super interesting video. Really appreciate the information about the promise and peril of hydrogen vehicles from hydrogen production methods to the different use cases. Also strongly agree with your point that we will need different kinds of clean energy transportation to meet the desires of consumers, whether we share their preferences or not. My brother-in-law accurately perceives that a lightning or a Rivian isn’t going to tow his giant camper to the family’s favored state park 300 miles away in any reasonable amount of time but I believe he could be persuaded to drive a fuel cell powered truck. I know it’s not really your target market, but it would be super interesting to see you “review“ some of the fuel cell big rigs that I understand are in use in CA.

[PANAFRAZER]

While I believe that Hydrogen has a place in energy storage when we reach a point of renewable production that outstrips our battery storage potential.
For automotive… I just don’t see anyway to get past the storage issues to get reasonable range with the HP needed for the American consumer. If you liquify, you need to be at near absolute zero, if you use hydrogen gas, you cannot get to the density or pressures needed.

Love to be proven wrong but o just don’t see a way you can pass batteries 😂it’s the rate of development in the sector.

[Noah_E]

I am an outlier. I live in central VA and have worked as a securities litigation consultant for over twenty years and own a tree farm in central VA and co-own a sawmill in SW VA. The legal work is primarily in Greensboro, NC (190 miles away) and Washington, DC (160). The sawmill is 55 miles away and I routinely transport dogs for several foster-based 501c3s that take me pretty much in every direction within a 100 mile radius. My tree related vehicles are diesel F350s because we can easily run them non-stop for ten hours and haul 6 tons, which we routinely do. My daily is a Forester XT, but I have a Suburban for long/large breed dog transports and tasks that need more space or hauling, but a 7k lbs truck would be overkill. I don't give two sh!ts about rolling coal. My trucks are stock other than AT tires on the OE wheels. I can easily put 200-300k miles before those ICE vehicles are toast. There is still no EV or HFCEV that can replace them that I would trust to last that long without a significant failure of a proprietary component. Even if a Suburban eats its transmission every 120k miles it's an easy repair that most mom and pop shops can handle in a few days.

[aj]

I just don’t see how right now at this time hydrogen could be feasible. It takes way more electricity to create that hydrogen. I would rather put that into a battery at home. It also seems like the creation of hydrogen vehicles seems to be the attempt at keeping us going to refueling stations as well as more moving complex parts to keep dealerships with income from repair work. EVs seem to be best at this time.

[jethrojackson]

Enjoyed the video and having driven the Honda Clarity Fuel Cell in 2017 for 3 years when Hydrogen was $9.00 a kilogram to start and rose to $18 by end of my lease I was always keeping track of my miles per kilogram each time I filled up. My average was 55 miles per kilogram driving it the way I did. Today at $36 a kilogram I could drive 22916 miles on a $15000 fuel card before I needed to pay out of pocket. Very important for folks who might drive a lot of miles to talk to others and get an idea about how many miles they’re getting per kilogram not tankful to get an accurate idea of how far you can go before running out of money on fuel card.

[FARFolomew]

The best way to think of utilizing Hydrogen is that of a gigantic battery that can be refilled very fast, but has serious limitations in how it can be refilled and is not super energy efficient when refilling it. But those two problems can be solved by 1) Having gigantic, relatively static, industries utilize it, such as ocean shipping and long-haul land trucking freight, and 2) By making electricity even more ubiquitous and cheaper than it is now, using either renewable or Nuclear. Lithium Ion battery usage obviously needs cheap electricity too, so in either future, cheap and unlimited energy (in the form of electricity) should be the goal our governments strive for. We've had the technology and the promise of that dream since the 1950s, but we got distracted and addicted by oil. Perhaps, finally, the electricity revolution may be in sight.

[Bradimus]

It's never going to happen as anything but a niche. It's not the renewable fuel aspect It's producing, storing, fueling, and repair of the cars. They've been coasting around as this amazing battery/ICE alternative for a long time and for most applications I think will never happen.

[Mountain-Man-]

Glad to see someone talking about this actually knows what's up.

[palakaman]

Isn't one of the drawbacks of hydrogen that it would all leak out over a short time? Like, leave it parked for a week and you would come back to an empty tank?

[CrazyWeeMonkey]

I think that some of the frustration around R&D spending are due to Toyota specifically spending so much on hydrogen development rather than battery electric vehicles. That's not to say Toyota hasn't spent R&D money on EVs, but they would have been in a completely different situation had they not spent a decade dead-set on hydrogen fuel cells.

I definitely agree on hydrogen having some potential uses (for planes & ships as well), but the specialized infrastructure requirements make it seem like a tricky non-commercial technology for places that aren't islands. It'll be interesting to see how things go.