Who is more promising for rechargeable batteries and fuel cells?

The development of new energy vehicles instead of traditional fuel automobiles is a trend. But what is the market prospect of rechargeable battery cars or fuel cell vehicles? Which is more competitive in infrastructure investment? A report of Germany and Yuri Research Center released in January 30th showed that two kinds of technical infrastructure costs depends largely on the number of powered vehicles. For example, the cost of infrastructure for hydrogen fuel cell vehicles is relatively cheaper, calculated by millions of cars.

One of the authors of the report and Research Center, Yuri energy and climate research experts Martin Rubinis believes that two kinds of rechargeable batteries and fuel cell technology is still in the market development stage, so it is necessary to assess future infrastructure investment costs, not blind development, caught in a dead end, cannot be changed under variable conditions.

At present, most experts tend to recharge batteries. The reason is very simple, because the grid is ready, and only needs to build a certain number of charging stations, and the efficiency is high, and the charging process is also more reliable. While most of the infrastructure for hydrogen fuel cell must be built from scratch, to water electrolysis by air, also need a more complex device, including hydrogen storage and transportation to the redistribution of hydrogen stations and a series of process.

Yulich's experts analyzed the application scenarios of the two technologies, and found that the ability to invest in return depends on how many rechargeable batteries or fuel cell vehicles run on the road. If the number of vehicles only hundreds of thousands of cars, battery charging infrastructure investment cost is obviously lower than the fuel cell, the investment return rate; and when the vehicle reaches millions of vehicles, the hydrogen fuel cell vehicle investment cost is lower than the rechargeable battery, a higher rate of return on investment. For an example of 20 million electric cars, the rechargeable battery car needs 51 billion euros and the hydrogen fuel cell car is 40 billion euros. The 10 million vehicles are the balance point of the investment cost of the two technical infrastructure.

Environmental benefits are also related to the number of new energy vehicles running on the road. Because of the different ways of energy conversion, the two technology carbon emissions are different. For an example of 20 million cars, the average emissions per kilometre of the battery car is 20.9 grams, and the fuel cell car is 2.7 grams.