Aug 12, 2021
Hydrogen vs. Electric Cars, only one is better in the long run.
Producing eco-friendly vehicles is a dirty, dirty business. Unless?
(Update, November 26th 2021: Sorry for this misleading, and badly written article. I was always stuck on the idea that using batteries to power a vehicle has its bad sides such as battery waste, and the ethical aspects of nickel and cobalt mining, which Hydrogen has the upper hands on. But, it turns out I was wrong, and I should put more time in research when I wrote this article. I will not delete this article, because I want people see my mistakes in my journey as a writer. Thank you for stopping by, and thank you for all your inputs, and all of your great insights so people who read this article will not be misinformed. I greatly appreciate it.)
It fascinates me, as a species we create our own problems, find the temporary solutions to that problem, and we just live waiting for someone else to find another solutions.
Pollution has been an issue in the world, and the automotive industry constantly get the hammer, especially with the planned upcoming Euro 7 standards, its getting harder to make an internal combustion engine run efficiently without sacrificing performance and efficiency.
Manufacturers are forced to downsize their engines, and add forced inductions to help increase the power. One of the famous example is Mercedes AMG. No more “65” series from them since 2019, a range of cars powered by a twin-turbocharged 6.0-liter V12. Now, the biggest engine they offer is a 4.0-liter twin turbocharged V8, put inside the “63” range, which is also a downsize from the 6.3-liter V8 it originally was.
Luckily, a savior come to rise, the magical EV. No emissions, quiet, less maintenance, crazy performance, seems like a no brainer right? All the benefits with no downsides. Although EVs didn’t manage to impress all car enthusiasts, many of them still prefer a sports car with a lively, gas-guzzling engine, manual transmission, et cetera et cetera.
Currently the big player in the EV industry is of course, Tesla. Tesla has done a great job making a car that doesn’t look bad, adding new features and technological advancements that easily grab the public’s attention. In addition, their strong brand image help cemented its reputation as THE electric car.
Tesla’s battery supply come from Panasonic and various other companies. Most car companies do the same thing instead of making their own battery cells, and it is understandable, making batteries isn’t easy at all, years of research of experiment must be done to make a product that is safe and reliable for customers.
The problem comes when all internal combustion cars are banned, EV production will skyrocket, and batteries will be in demand more than ever. What do you think batteries made out of? That’s right, Nickel & Cobalt. Nickel is the 5th most abundant element on earth, but mining it isn’t easy and most of it are available in Indonesia, Philippines, Russia, and New Caledonia. Meanwhile, Democratic Republic of Congo has 50% of the world’s Cobalt, and Australia being the second largest at 20%.
There has been an ethical concern about the nickel and cobalt mining industry. Most famous example, the Toyota Prius. When it was just released, it reported to cause significant environmental damage due to its production process, the National Center for Policy Analysis found the nickel contained in Prius’ battery is mined and processed at a plant in Ontario that has caused considerable environmental damage to the surrounding area, even NASA used this “dead zone” to test their moon rovers. Another concern is, the use of unpaid or even worse, child labor in cobalt mines, this has been a huge issue in Democratic Republic of Congo, where children as young as seven years old, is working hard so your electric cars can run.
So, the EV industry is a dirty business, why can’t we just use another source of energy to power our cars? Hasn’t anybody thought of anything yet?
Well, Hydrogen! 90% of our visible universe is composed of this stuff, it is the simplest and the most abundant element in the universe. The first commercially available hydrogen-powered car is the Honda FCX Clarity in 2008, with a full tank of hydrogen it’ll go 240 miles (386 km), and with only 5 minutes refueling time. Best part? Its only form of emission is water out of the exhaust pipe.
Even better, now modern hydrogen cars even lets the driver to dump the water on demand just by the push of a button, here’s a video of someone drinking the water out of a 2018 Toyota Mirai.
Why these cars aren’t popular then? First, the infrastructure isn’t sufficient, as of right now, in United States, the only state to have hydrogen fueling stations is California, and in Canada, there are only five for the whole country, three in Vancouver, one in Victoria, and one in Quebec. That leads to second problem, people aren’t willing to take the risk to buy these cars because of the limited spots to refuel, so it created this image that these cars are so obscure and it might be too problematic to own, and also availability for these cars are only limited to states that have these fueling stations. Third problem is, most car company aren’t even trying to market these cars, or even bothered to make one, hence why many people didn’t even know of such technology.
Some car manufacturers are willing to try though, Toyota has redesigned the Mirai for the 2020 model year, and its stunning. Dealerships are giving discounts for these things, and even complimentary fuel for up to 3 years, or USD 15.000 maximum, sounds like a very sweet deal.
So, now its up to the government to push the infrastructure for these hydrogen vehicles, in hopes more people are willing to take the chance to buy these true eco-friendly machines. I really hope this is the future, because clean energy shouldn’t be dirty.
What do you think, will hydrogen cars one day be popular and replaces the EV? or do you have any insights or other opinions? Let me know in the comments!
