The End Of Bev?

[Resident 1,195]

With the latest being Volvo, adding to Ford, GM, VW/Audi Group, Toyota & Honda, all cancelling plans to develop, expand or even continue production of battery EVs, does this signal the end for them?

Ford and Volvo haven't said what comes next however reports state that Toyota, Honda and GM are going to focus on Hydrogen, with the latter pair opting to work together.

Is this the end of the road for battery?

Hydrogen fuel cell tech has been in production cars since around 2007, Honda's FCX Clarity.

It showed it does work. Unfortunately I think it came too early. I think if it came at the time the push for EVs started it would have won over BEV. However because it came too early it was shunned and forgotten about.

[RollingJ 2,056]

Interesting, @Resident - I wasn't aware of that, but it is no great surprise to be honest.

[geared 321]

To be fair most of those who are not going to continue development are also the same ones who've not really bothered with it in the first place.

 

VW group and Ford especially, their offerings have been shockingly poor.

 

Weirdly Toyota are well known for being early to the market with an EV, Ford also have an electric Focus on the market, over a decade ago!

Seemingly, they stopped bothering with it, while other companies went in for it big time.

 

The market now seems split between the big hitters like Tesla, and players from SE Asia.

[Hopman 46]

A surge in the Hydrogen market could be good for ITM in Sheffield.

[Pyrotequila 405]

Hydrogen fuel cells do have the potential to replace ICE, but not until the price comes down and there's the infrastructure in place.

Unfortunately it's way more hassle to install underground storage tanks than it is to wire up some charging points.

[geared 321]

It is, but you only end up with a slow 7kw charger.  Ok if you're just doing some shopping locally, but at service stations where people need to charge up and go they're pointless.

 

The fast charger stations do end up with big install costs as they usually have a couple of containers full of batteries and such on site to enable the fast charging.

[Chekhov 488]

1 hour ago, Pyrotequila said:

Hydrogen fuel cells do have the potential to replace ICE, but not until the price comes down and there's the infrastructure in place.

Unfortunately it's way more hassle to install underground storage tanks than it is to wire up some charging points.

Not sure about that P.

What about people who do not have their own drive ?

And those charging points need power, which the grid cannot at present deliver

[Andy_terrier 69]

wouldn't you look to repurpose existing facilities at service stations?  Big undergound tanks in place already.  If you make 1 or 2 on every forecourt a Hydrogen pump instead and as petrol is phased out, phase in more hydrogen pumps?

[Pyrotequila 405]

5 hours ago, Chekhov said:

Not sure about that P.

What about people who do not have their own drive ?

And those charging points need power, which the grid cannot at present deliver

I meant in the sense of a hydrogen fuel station, rather than some at home storage pod 👍

 

@Andy_terrier that would be a good solution, I assume anyway.

[geared 321]

19 hours ago, Andy_terrier said:

wouldn't you look to repurpose existing facilities at service stations?  Big undergound tanks in place already.  If you make 1 or 2 on every forecourt a Hydrogen pump instead and as petrol is phased out, phase in more hydrogen pumps?

Those are petrol/diesel tanks tho, they wouldn't be any good at storing hydrogen.  It'd need all new stuff installing.

 

 

[Mr Bloke 1,445]

4 minutes ago, geared said:

Those are petrol/diesel tanks tho, they wouldn't be any good at storing hydrogen.  It'd need all new stuff installing.

 

 

Hmmm...

I'm guessing they'd need to install much heavier storage tanks?

[Andy_terrier 69]

2 hours ago, geared said:

Those are petrol/diesel tanks tho, they wouldn't be any good at storing hydrogen.  It'd need all new stuff installing.

 

 

that is true but basically a lot of the work would be done - big hole, etc.  Its surely easier to replace the existing with a new tank and compression/pump kit than go all new?   just thinking if Hydrogen becomes the next best thing - starting to replace existing with new is a no brainer.  Got to be easier than finding extra space and infrastructure for the charging points