Feature: Hydrogen Fuel Cells – Where Are They Now?

Hydrogen Fuel Cells. Click image to enlarge

Thorp agrees that the similar to gasoline refueling time is one of the main advantages over battery electrics, but she also likes the fact that the hydrogen can be formulated from waste products. She says that compressed hydrogen where she goes costs about US$4–5/kg, though Honda covers the fueling costs as part of their lease agreement, as other companies do and Hyundai will as well. It costs $12 to $15 per fill up, which she usually does at about 180 miles (288 km).

Compared to a Nissan Leaf run over a year in Canada, which costs about $30 in electricity for every 1,000 km of travel, Thorp’s costs run just slightly more expensive at about $50 per 1,000 km, if you concede both dollars at par. A small price to pay for the extra range and quicker fueling times, though you can’t fuel at home, plus fuel of any kind tends to be much cheaper in the U.S. than north of the border, even in California.

The two main obstacles to fuel cells have long been their high cost and lack of interest in fuel retailers to add compressed hydrogen pumps. “There’s a little reluctance from the energy supplier,” said Kohler. “ExxonMobil, Shell, those folks, it’s always a difficult issue for us. They always tell us they don’t want to lose money, and we tell them yes, we don’t either, but we have to look down the road.”

If progress continues to stall with making compressed hydrogen widely available, Kohler believes governments will have to step in and force the oil companies to do so. “The lobby activities from the energy side were very strong, they came out and said we’ll do that on a free will basis, and I have some doubts on my side,” he states warily. “If CARB is pushing us to zero emissions vehicles, you have to bring some kind of preconditions for the market as well; the easiest way is to say every ton or thousand tons (of gasoline), you have to offer 10 kg of hydrogen.”

For us here in Canada, a country whose entire economic policy seems to revolve around petro-dollars, it seems a fairly safe bet that there will be no zero emissions government mandates or national public hydrogen refueling infrastructure in Canada anytime soon, especially if oil companies are still opposed to it. And unlike Tesla in the U.S. with its Supercharger network, with no auto company willing to pour major investment dollars into fuel cell infrastructure, the most likely way for most Canadians to drive a fuel cell vehicle in the next few years will likely be on a trip to LA, with a fuel cell rental car, in a deal between Hyundai and Enterprise with that same Tucson. Launch time, once again near LA only, is spring 2014.