Bavaria’s Economics Minister, Hubert Aiwanger, has clear preferences for electric cars. Instead of a large battery, the free-voter politician prefers to draw the energy for driving from a hydrogen tank, the contents of which are converted into electricity by a fuel cell.
To put it less technically: Aiwanger has been using a BMW iX5 Hydrogen – an electric car with a fuel cell – since last week. The minister proudly shared a photo of himself next to the large SUV on Twitter.
For this he earned the usual malice, a few approving comments and questions, for example about the number of hydrogen filling stations in Bavaria. It’s 14.
What irritated not only notorious Aiwanger critics was his comment on the new company vehicle: “I am convinced that hydrogen cars will find a large market if they are offered!” This contradicts the facts in Germany. Because cars with fuel cells are certainly offered in this country – Toyota and Hyundai are the names of the manufacturers, Mirai and Nexo the models. Contrary to Aiwanger’s forecast, they will not be bought.
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The statistics of the Federal Motor Transport Authority show a total of only 168 new registrations of fuel cell cars from the beginning of the year to the end of May. Electric cars with batteries were newly registered 184,000 times in the same period.
The reasons for the reluctance of customers are obvious: there are only 91 filling stations for hydrogen nationwide. The gas costs 13.85 euros per kilogram there, and you can travel about 100 kilometers with it. And the cars from Toyota and Hyundai are not exactly cheap at 66,000 euros and 77,000 euros, respectively.
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The ability to refuel as quickly as before with petrol or diesel apparently does not compensate for the disadvantages in the eyes of customers. At least for the moment, the race between hydrogen and battery as energy storage has been clearly decided – in favor of the battery.
The departure of the German car manufacturers from the technology was also decisive. The Volkswagen Group is building its own huge battery cell factories in Europe, China and North America. Mercedes-Benz stopped development after a small series of fuel cell SUVs and gave the technology to its sister company Daimler Truck. There it is to be used in heavy long-distance trucks. After all, Opel, as part of the Stellantis Group, offers small vans with fuel cells, in small series.
BMW remains the only advocate of the hydrogen car. There you see the current small series as a way to keep technology knowledge in the company. According to BMW, you can start series production of such vehicles at any time. However, this is considered unlikely for the coming years. It’s more of an option for the 2030s. The current cars are not for sale, they are loaned to people like Aiwanger and used by the company itself for testing purposes.
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The funds that BMW is investing in the project are also manageable. The manufacturer obtains the individual fuel cells from Toyota, except for this component, the gas tank and the smaller battery, which such a car still needs, the car is identical in construction to the battery model iX5.
Toyota and Hyundai remain champions of fuel cell technology. Both companies have now clearly opted for an electric strategy, with a focus on battery cars. But hydrogen should continue to play a role in their product range.
“In Korea and Japan, there is no fundamental debate about hydrogen in mobility,” says German engineer Ronald Grasman, who is responsible for the fuel cell business at Hyundai in Seoul. “There is a social consensus in Korea that the future energy system will be based on hydrogen because Korea is dependent on energy imports from abroad.”
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Although the efficiency of the hydrogen system is significantly lower than that of a battery car, there are applications where the fuel cell makes more sense. “Not just for commercial vehicles, but also for passenger cars,” says Grasman. The major companies in Korea have jointly built a hydrogen energy system that also affects mobility.
In fact, Hyundai is the world market leader in passenger cars with fuel cells. According to the company, it sold 11,179 NEXOs worldwide last year. This corresponds to a market share of more than 50 percent. The group also sees itself as a pioneer in the field of commercial vehicles. In Korea, 300 fuel cell buses from Hyundai are already on the road, says Grasman’s colleague Mark Freymüller, who is responsible for commercial vehicles.
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There is also a truck project with freight forwarders in Switzerland. “We have just broken the mark of seven million kilometers in customer hands there,” says Freymüller. He admits that higher energy prices slowed down the project somewhat. Nevertheless, customers are satisfied with the current 47 vehicles.
A further 42 vehicles are to be on the road in Germany from the end of September, and Hyundai also wants to expand the project to other European countries. The advantage of Switzerland: The trucks can use green hydrogen there, which is generated with electricity from hydropower. This possibility does not exist in Germany. If the hydrogen is obtained from the conversion of natural gas instead of using green electricity, then the entire system is no longer climate-neutral.
Nevertheless, Freymüller expects that the spread of hydrogen technology in the truck market will also give passenger cars a boost. “We have a chicken-and-egg problem with the hydrogen car: does the infrastructure have to be there first or the vehicle technology first?” he says. With commercial vehicles, this dilemma is easier to break through because they require 50 times more hydrogen than a car. “It’s more worthwhile to set up a filling station network.”
Hyundai definitely wants to stick to the fuel cell. The two managers say the technology has been in development since 1998. The group has the technology for the entire value chain in its hands, including production. The company’s top executives will next present their vision and strategy for the hydrogen business in the USA at the CES technology trade fair in Las Vegas in early 2024.
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