This year at the New York Auto Show, hydrogen cars occupied a place of aloof distinction. In particular, Toyota and Honda had set the Mirai and Clarity Fuel Cell, respectfully, apart. Toyota included several displays of how hydrogen fuel runs through an engine, including neon-lit tubes and diagrams. The Clarity was placed in front of a bright white wall, away from the rest of the Hondas, beside a small inverter. Not only was the hydrogen car a technology of the future, it was an alien one; not only was it an automotive fuel, the inverter can be used to power a home.
Currently, Toyota, Honda, and Hyundai have hydrogen cars available to the public, as do some smaller companies like Riversimple, which crowdfunded its car, the Rasa. Hydrogen cars have their share of critics, including electric car guru Elon Musk. The infrastructure is currently stick in a chicken-or-the-egg battle of convenience, with hydrogen fueling stations rare except for some areas in which they’re concentrated in California, Germany, or Japan. Hydrogen is less efficient than electricity, and arguably dirtier – most hydrogen used for vehicles comes from natural gas, which takes a less efficient process to produce.
That hasn’t stopped companies from working on it, though. Large automakers like Honda have been working on hydrogen cars for years. That support feeds back into an increase in infrastructure, sometimes directly. Honda announced $13.4 million in funding for public hydrogen fueling stations in California in 2014, thanks to a partnership with hydrogen station company FirstElement Fuel.
Kiyoshi Shimizu, the chief engineer of the Clarity Fuel Cell, told Product Design & Development about the changes in design that enabled a hydrogen powertrain to fit in a conventional sedan.
“In the FCX Clarity [Concept], the fuel cell stack was located in the floor center tunnel with a small lithium battery placed underneath the rear seat. This layout was a novel design with certain components positioned outside of the engine bay but in such a manner as to allow for adequate interior passenger volume,” Shimizu said.
“For Clarity Fuel Cell, the fuel cell powertrain was made as compact as a V6 internal combustion engine powertrain, which made it possible to locate the entire unit in the engine bay and create the world’s first fuel cell electric vehicle (FCEV) with a traditional sedan body type. Therefore, this new powertrain layout enabled a full cabin package that comfortably seats five adults.”
The Clarity will be available in Fuel Cell, plug-in hybrid, and all-electric versions, but isn’t available for purchase yet – the hydrogen model is anticipated to go on sale later this year. It boasts a targeted range of 300 miles, surpassing that of most electric cars – if you live in a location with hydrogen stations. It’s expected to have a MSRP of about $60,000, and be available in Japan before expanding to the United States and Europe.
At the moment, the Toyota Mirai is available for purchase in California, but it’s restricted to ownership within the state, and orders take 2 to 12 months to fill. Toyota has taken care to address concerns about fuel availability, both by keeping the program in California and by offering three years of free fill-ups. It has a MSRP of $57,500, with rebates available under California’s alternate fuel programs.
Toyota makes sure to address another concern about hydrogen: safety. Aware of the safety concerns and a public lack of knowledge around highly flammable hydrogen, Toyota is sure to note that leaked hydrogen is designed to spill outward, away from the car’s cabin. There is also an automatic shut-down system in which sensors stop the flow of hydrogen if the car is involved in a high-speed collision.
Another big-name hydrogen car on the road – and the Mirai’s competitor – is the Hyundai Tucson Fuel Cell, known internationally as the ix35. It offers a 265 mile range on its Li-Polymer battery, and, Hyundai claims, has more interior room than the Mirai. The Tucson is currently available for lease in California.
Mercedes-Benz also offers the B-Class F-Cell for lease in California, with a 190 mile average range.
The Rasa, developed by Riversimple in the United Kingdom, takes a different tack when it comes to hydrogen. They’ve paired a hydrogen fuel cell system with four electric motors, one on each wheel. These are equipped with super-capacitors that store reclaimed energy during braking. Riversimple calls this a Network Electric System, whereby energy can flow in any direction from the electric motors to the fuel cell.
The fact that many of these cars are only available in California speaks to the current state of the hydrogen fueling infrastructure. According to the U.S. Department of Energy, there are just 23 hydrogen fueling stations in California, and one each in South Carolina, Connecticut, and Massachusetts.
The federal government and the state of California both offer incentives, and hydrogen cars are eligible for California’s ecofriendly high-occupancy vehicle driving lanes.
Hydrogen cars do generate only one byproduct – water, which is produced by the car as both liquid and steam. Like plug-in electric cars, hydrogen cars are quiet, and generate their own power on board. It takes anywhere from a few minutes to half an hour to fill up at a hydrogen station, depending on the vehicle and the pressure the car’s tank is built for. That’s shorter than the average time it takes to charge a conventional electric car, which can take several hours for a complete charge depending on the model and the type of charger.
However, there’s quite a lot of debate over whether hydrogen cars can be called “clean” with impunity. At the moment, the hydrogen used in electric cars is generated from natural gas. Once the industry learns more about how to make electrolysis more efficient, it can be generated from cracked water.
Recently, the University of Iowa’s Optical Science and Technology Center developed a solar-powered electrochemical hydrogen battery. Inspired by photosynthesis, involves placing a solar device in water. The energy of the sunlight converts the water to hydrogen. One day it could be used to power hydrogen fuel cell vehicles, but it hasn’t been produced on a mass scale.
California already has sanctions in place to ensure that at least 33.3 percent of hydrogen produced much come from renewable resources.
According to the U.S. Department of Energy, most hydrogen used in the United States today is captured using steam reforming, in which high-temperature steam is combined with natural gas in order to extract the hydrogen. Producing it this way may generate emissions. In electrolysis, an electric current is used to split water into hydrogen and oxygen – and if the current is generated by a renewable source, this part of the process could be clean too. However, there’s some debate about whether hydrogen cars’ clean lifecycle – they emit only water and steam – makes up for the way the hydrogen is initially generated. The efficiency of the hydrogen tanks themselves can also be improved in order to get more mileage.
Regardless of which method creates less pollution in the very long run between the creation of the hydrogen and the end of the car’s lifetime, there’s only a small sample size of these cars available now. Plug-in electric vehicles are being adopted quicker and in more places – but hydrogen remains an interesting alternative.