3 ms·

Sure, but if the economics of hydrogen motors worked out for planes and shipping, the argument is that it would also economically work out for cars.

• Manuel_D 8mo ago
  Is suspect large trucks may eventually move to hydrogen, but smaller passenger vehicles will stay on batteries. The nature of hydrogen containment favors larger capacity, on account of better volume to surface area ratios.
  • throwaway473825 8mo ago
    Hydrogen was marketed as a stopgap until batteries are good enough. Well, batteries are good enough for trucks now: https://www.electrive.com/2026/01/23/year-end-surge-electric-trucks-outsell-diesel-for-the-first-time-in-china/ https://www.electrive.com/2026/01/23/year-end-surge-electric... Once you go battery electric, you never go back. It's the most efficient way to move vehicles.
  • MaKey 8mo ago
    >Is suspect large trucks may eventually move to hydrogen [...] They won't, why would they? The number of hydrogen gas stations is going down and the price is going up. Batteries are good enough already - the Mercedes eActros 600 with its 600 kWh battery has a range of 500 km.
    • tedk-42 8mo ago
      Lol yes lets just casually plug into a 1.2MW charger and not take down the electricity of the nearby town while I charge my truck. Nuclear trucks and boats are what I envision so maybe I'm the one who needs a reality check.
      • shaky-carrousel 8mo ago
        Well, of course countries would have to modernize their electrical grid. But that's a good outcome.
      • lb1lf 8mo ago
        Around where I live, we have electric car ferries. To avoid having to upgrade the grid massively, we use large battery banks shoreside which are being charged at a sustainable (to the grid) rate, then the ferry charges rapidly by depleting the battery bank, leaving the grid alone. Works a charm.
      • bryanlarsen 8mo ago
        Electrifying all transport in the nation would increase electricity load by 20%. But even if 100% of all vehicles sold today was electric, it would still take ~20 years before almost 100% of vehicles on the road were electric. And it's not, so we're probably looking at > 30 years to increase electricity load by 20%. That annual increase is far less than the increase caused by data centers. It's about the same as the annual increase in load caused by increased use of air conditioning.
    • sandworm101 8mo ago
      Life expectancy. A hydrogen tank can be refilled forever. A battery is normally limited to a few thousand cycles. A truck, or airplane, is expected to be fueled/recharged daily for decades. A car is designed to survive the length of a standard lease. Those running fleets of trucks/aircraft will always care more than car owners about long-term ownership costs.
      • vel0city 8mo ago
        This isn't necessarily true. Most cylinders storing compressed gasses need to be hydrostatically tested in regular intervals to ensure continued safety and will need replacement when they fail. Other kinds of composite cylinders have fixed ages where they should be replaced.
        • sandworm101 8mo ago
          Inspection is expected. In the transport industry, all sorts of parts need regular inspection. Batteries are different. Performance loss over time leading to replacement decisions is unussual. Virtually no other part degrades in performance the moment you use it. Lots of parts have time limits, especially in aerospace, but few degrade. Those running fleets see this as unussual and unpredictable which, at scale, means extra expense. A tank that needs inspection every decade is a known problem. A battery that looses 1% to 5% capacity every year, depending on weather/use factors, is harder math.
          • vel0city 8mo ago
            > In the transport industry I'm not in the transport industry, I just want to go to the grocery store. > Performance loss over time leading to replacement decisions is unussual. Virtually no other part degrades in performance the moment you use it. Tires? Brake pads? Lubricants? Belts? Springs? Bearings? Bushings? Seals? There's tons of parts on my cars that have expected wear intervals that will need replacing after x number of miles with performance that changes with the wear of the part, there's a whole service manual of when to replace certain parts.
  • wao0uuno 8mo ago
    I worked in one of the top 5 logistics companies in the world and I can recall them investing in electric trucks and charging infrastructure. Idea was to have strategically placed overhead lines that could recharge trucks without need for them to stop. Can't recall any mentions of hydrogen.
    • Thiez 8mo ago
      I have seen at least one stretch of highway in Germany that has overhead power lines for trucks. I think it's a very interesting concept: the big downside of batteries is slow charging (compared to diesel) and limited range. Charging while driving on highways would largely solve these downsides.
      • Joker_vD 8mo ago
        Cargo trolleybuses? An interesting idea.
  • bryanlarsen 8mo ago
    Many jurisdictions require that commercial drivers take a 30 minute break every 4 hours. Those that don't should. Those stops make battery trucking feasible. And if you want to stop for 5 minutes instead of 30 you can use battery swapping solutions like the one Janus uses. Batteries are feasible for long distance trucking today. Green Hydrogen trucking uses 3X as much electricity as using it directly. Trucking's biggest expense is fuel, so that will be the killer factor ensuring battery will beat hydrogen for long distance trucking.
    • travisb 8mo ago
      Using mandated breaks for recharging heavy trucks isn't actually helpful in much of the world. Maybe it is in parts of Western Europe. The problem is that those mandated breaks are mandated and happen (with a small amount of wiggle room) wherever the truck happens to be at that moment. Rolling out enough charging infrastructure to make that work is an even more immense challenge than the already massive challenge of adding sufficient charging infrastructure to places like existing truck stops. Imagine the cost of installing 1MW chargers on, say, half the wide spots on every highway.
      • bryanlarsen 8mo ago
        Imagine the cost of installing massive diesel depots at half the wide spots on every highway. And yet, there they are. And we already have car chargers every few dozen miles on the highways. A larger number of smaller chargers adding up to likely a larger wattage than what the trucks need.
      • dotancohen 8mo ago
        > Imagine the cost of installing 1MW chargers on, say, half the wide spots on every highway. Do those spots have lighting? If so, a significant portion of the work has already been done. Even if the electrical wiring must be supplemented or replaced, just having already the subinfrastructure to snake high voltage wiring up there is the major hurdle.
  • solatic 8mo ago
    Perhaps, but the larger question is whether the price of hydrogen itself can be sufficiently reduced. $36/kg is not justifiable for distance trucking or planes. If the price of hydrogen dropped sufficiently, then there's more demand to build hydrogen infrastructure, which increases demand for hydrogen in smaller vehicles, etc. in a positive feedback loop. That theory didn't play out, mostly because the price of electrics kept dropping year after year, undercutting any appeal in early investment in hydrogen.