In the US at least, I really don’t see hydrogen ever taking off. Even in California, there’s so few stations that you can’t really travel from the top of the state to the bottom without going out of your way. The hydrogen fuel stations that are in place are even more expensive than they were a few years ago, if they’re still functioning at all. We’re talking like $180 USD for the equivalent of a tank of gas, at stations that aren’t as convenient as a gas station or an outlet at home. It’s even the subject of a lawsuit, which may or may not be successful.
It seems like hydrogen has already lost the race for the rest of the world, with BEV adoption growing substantially in Europe and China. Personally I wouldn’t want my market to rely on solely Japan and a US headed by someone blatantly antagonistic to alternative fuels.
My impression is that much of the world is more positive on hydrogen than the USA. Toyota seems to be slow-walking EVs in anticipation of hydrogen breakthroughs. Mist of what you say about fuel stations could have been said about charging infrastructure not that long ago.
I’m not sure the infrastructure build out for hydrogen is directly comparable to the charging infrastructure for BEVs. At least some segment of the population has access to charging infrastructure just by virtue of having access to an outlet at their homes, which allows for trickle charging, as well as the option to install a dedicated charger at home that allows for much cheaper charging that’s also fast enough to charge from 0-100 overnight, so no need to stop at a fuel station at all. This meant that there were people who were willing to adopt the technology through the growing pains. With hydrogen, you run into a bit of a chicken and the egg problem where companies aren’t encouraged to expand infrastructure without adoption rates being high enough and consumers aren’t itching to purchase a vehicle where fuel is more expensive and less convenient to access. The refuel card incentives were supposed to get consumers over that hump, but it doesn’t seem like it was anywhere near enough. I think the conditions were ripe for an emergent technology to eventually replace ICE vehicles, but hydrogen fueled vehicles were on the back foot to begin with.
The fact that Hydrogen, the most readily available element in the Universe, is not our primary fuel source demonstrates how ignorant the majority of people on the planet are. If everyone knew, they would look at any other energy source as a complete waste of resources and demand better.
Hydrogen is a major fuel source, just not in the form that’s necessary to power hydrogen fuel cell cars. Regular gas vehicles are powered by hydrogen, since they’re a component of gasoline. Any energy generated by liquified natural gas (though I hate the term) is using hydrogen as a fuel source. It’s not exactly easy to create, liquify, store, and transport pure elemental hydrogen for use in hydrogen fuel cell cars, let alone the cost to develop all the infrastructure to do so. I don’t think it’s a collective action problem, and if we were going to rally around a singular transportation issue, I think it’d be far more valuable to demand robust public transit options.
Electrolysis can separate Hydrogen from Oxygen in water. It is also incredibly eco friendly, and incredibly easy to scale up. Hydrogen as a fuel also produces water vapor as a byproduct. Not to mention Hydrogen Fusion technology for Nuclear energy production will be the way if we get our collective heads on right.
Feel free to tell me how you plan to power your theoretical public transport grid without mentioning Solar and wind farms which are are incredibly destructive to the environment to build, maintain, and operate.
How are we sustainably converting elemental hydrogen into a state where it’s readily storable and transportable for use in vehicles? I’m not pushing against it as a viable energy source generally speaking, but it really doesn’t need to be in a car, where it’s used to power an electric motor in the exact same way as a battery is, except the battery can recapture energy through regenerative breaking. I was pushing back against the implication that humanity is stupid for not using hydrogen in general, because we use a lot of it.
For the record, your all-powerful and flawless elemental hydrogen can power the grid just as readily as it could power a car. It’d be great if it were a larger share of our energy generation, for the record.
The fact that Hydrogen, the most readily available element in the Universe, is not our primary fuel source demonstrates how ignorant the majority of people on the planet are. If everyone knew, they would look at any other energy source as a complete waste of resources and demand better.
Electrolysis can separate Hydrogen from Oxygen in water. It is also incredibly eco friendly, and incredibly easy to scale up. Hydrogen as a fuel also produces water vapor as a byproduct. Not to mention Hydrogen Fusion technology for Nuclear energy production will be the way if we get our collective heads on right.
Feel free to tell me how you plan to power your theoretical public transport grid without mentioning Solar and wind farms which are are incredibly destructive to the environment to build, maintain, and operate.
For the record, I wasn’t speaking about personal vehicles. Nor did I make one mention of them. But since you wish to ignore my point and change the topic: If I had it my way, no one would own a personal vehicle. EV or otherwise.
In the US at least, I really don’t see hydrogen ever taking off. Even in California, there’s so few stations that you can’t really travel from the top of the state to the bottom without going out of your way. The hydrogen fuel stations that are in place are even more expensive than they were a few years ago, if they’re still functioning at all. We’re talking like $180 USD for the equivalent of a tank of gas, at stations that aren’t as convenient as a gas station or an outlet at home. It’s even the subject of a lawsuit, which may or may not be successful.
It seems like hydrogen has already lost the race for the rest of the world, with BEV adoption growing substantially in Europe and China. Personally I wouldn’t want my market to rely on solely Japan and a US headed by someone blatantly antagonistic to alternative fuels.
My impression is that much of the world is more positive on hydrogen than the USA. Toyota seems to be slow-walking EVs in anticipation of hydrogen breakthroughs. Mist of what you say about fuel stations could have been said about charging infrastructure not that long ago.
I’m definitely open to being wrong about the world’s impression of hydrogen fuel cell vehicles, but I’m not sure it’s borne out in the data. Europe doesn’t seem to be adapting it anywhere near the rate at which they’ve adopted BEVs (I couldn’t find a 2025 report in my cursory search, but would love to see one if anyone else finds it), nor does China, which is all in on BEVs. In fact, it seems like California may have more hydrogen fuel cell vehicles alone than all of Europe combined. That’s two of the major markets accounted for, but it might be possible to convince the US to adopt hydrogen when they decide they no longer want to be left in the past.
I’m not sure the infrastructure build out for hydrogen is directly comparable to the charging infrastructure for BEVs. At least some segment of the population has access to charging infrastructure just by virtue of having access to an outlet at their homes, which allows for trickle charging, as well as the option to install a dedicated charger at home that allows for much cheaper charging that’s also fast enough to charge from 0-100 overnight, so no need to stop at a fuel station at all. This meant that there were people who were willing to adopt the technology through the growing pains. With hydrogen, you run into a bit of a chicken and the egg problem where companies aren’t encouraged to expand infrastructure without adoption rates being high enough and consumers aren’t itching to purchase a vehicle where fuel is more expensive and less convenient to access. The refuel card incentives were supposed to get consumers over that hump, but it doesn’t seem like it was anywhere near enough. I think the conditions were ripe for an emergent technology to eventually replace ICE vehicles, but hydrogen fueled vehicles were on the back foot to begin with.
The fact that Hydrogen, the most readily available element in the Universe, is not our primary fuel source demonstrates how ignorant the majority of people on the planet are. If everyone knew, they would look at any other energy source as a complete waste of resources and demand better.
Hydrogen is a major fuel source, just not in the form that’s necessary to power hydrogen fuel cell cars. Regular gas vehicles are powered by hydrogen, since they’re a component of gasoline. Any energy generated by liquified natural gas (though I hate the term) is using hydrogen as a fuel source. It’s not exactly easy to create, liquify, store, and transport pure elemental hydrogen for use in hydrogen fuel cell cars, let alone the cost to develop all the infrastructure to do so. I don’t think it’s a collective action problem, and if we were going to rally around a singular transportation issue, I think it’d be far more valuable to demand robust public transit options.
Electrolysis can separate Hydrogen from Oxygen in water. It is also incredibly eco friendly, and incredibly easy to scale up. Hydrogen as a fuel also produces water vapor as a byproduct. Not to mention Hydrogen Fusion technology for Nuclear energy production will be the way if we get our collective heads on right.
Feel free to tell me how you plan to power your theoretical public transport grid without mentioning Solar and wind farms which are are incredibly destructive to the environment to build, maintain, and operate.
How are we sustainably converting elemental hydrogen into a state where it’s readily storable and transportable for use in vehicles? I’m not pushing against it as a viable energy source generally speaking, but it really doesn’t need to be in a car, where it’s used to power an electric motor in the exact same way as a battery is, except the battery can recapture energy through regenerative breaking. I was pushing back against the implication that humanity is stupid for not using hydrogen in general, because we use a lot of it.
For the record, your all-powerful and flawless elemental hydrogen can power the grid just as readily as it could power a car. It’d be great if it were a larger share of our energy generation, for the record.
For the record, I wasn’t speaking about personal vehicles. Nor did I make one mention of them. But since you wish to ignore my point and change the topic: If I had it my way, no one would own a personal vehicle. EV or otherwise.