this post was submitted on 09 Apr 2026
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Hydrogen
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While hydrogen may be useful in other applications (long-haul trucking, aircraft, etc), I really can't see a situation where we get mass adoption in passenger cars. The momentum is clearly behind BEVs, and that has a very viable path to mass adoption.
The only reason people would adopt hydrogen is to maintain the status quo of the gasoline model, but those would-be buyers are more insistent on the exact status quo of gasoline.
Hydrogen cars will win when they are cheaper to own.
That's the issue; hydrogen has none of the inertia of fossil fuel ICE, most of the drawbacks, and a ton of its own unique issues (like bulky/dangerous storage of hydrogen). It won't be cheaper than ICE. It won't be cheaper than EV-drivetrain hybrids, either.
And even if hydrogen cars were somehow cheaper, why spend billions setting up hydrogen infrastructure? We already have gasoline. Or natural gas fuel cells, if that's the tech angle.
Hydrogen was an interesting "transition" fuel like two decades ago when electric drivetrains and power transmission were less advanced, and leaders thought populations would care about climate change. But society collectively decided to just ignore it and keep using gas. Hence I think that window is passed.
Fuel cells are much simpler than ICEs and much lighter than batteries. A fuel cell car could be cheaper than both. Hydrogen-ICE cars are also possible.
Gasoline and natural gas are fossil fuels. Green hydrogen is not. Of course, you can make green gasoline or natural gas (basically what e-fuels are) but both require hydrogen as an input.