Hydrogen cars still in the running | Timber turbines turning in Sweden | Hyperloop hopes alive in Canada
infrastruttura
no. 45
Automakers like Toyota haven't given up on hydrogen fuel cell-powered vehicles just yet.
America's battery-powered EV market has stalled and hydrogen-powered cars face myriad technical, practical, and logistical challenges. But many legacy automakers still believe the technology has a future, particularly in certain key mobility verticals that will be difficult to decarbonize using batteries alone.
For example, Honda and GM (which actually launched its first hydrogen-powered prototype in 1966, highlighting the industry's running joke that "hydrogen is the fuel of the future and always will be") have invested nearly $100M in a hydrogen fuel-cell manufacturing plant in Detroit, where they claim production costs have dropped by nearly 2/3. Stellantis recently started manufacturing hydrogen fuel cell-powered vans in Europe, Honda is planning to introduce a hydrogen version of its popular CR-V model in 2025, and BMW is testing its iX5 hydrogen fuel cell car (although it uses a Toyota fuel cell - more on that below).