Are hydrogen cars the future of the UK?

Introduction

With the London debut of the first ever hydrogen powered racing car in June 2024, the new off-road racing series, Extreme H, is set to make waves in the motorsport and sustainability industries with its first season in 2025. The first ever hydrogen powered motorsport series was announced in 2022 to replace the carbon-neutral electric racing series Extreme E, with the intention of pioneering the potential of hydrogen fuel cells and diversifying the paths of sustainable mobility. Like its predecessor, Extreme H will continue to race off-road in a spec SUV car, where engineers and machinists from competing teams optimise the SUV for the different range of terrains and topographies. The hydrogen spec SUV, fittingly called the Pioneer 25 (Figure 1), is promising for the rapid advancement of hydrogen fuel research, leading to the integration of hydrogen fuel cells vehicles on local roads. In line with the upcoming ban on the sale of new petrol, diesel, and hybrid cars across the UK in 2035, as well as the UK target of reaching carbon neutral by 2050, the need for sustainable and practical transport options is growing. So far however, electric cars have proved to not be a one-size-fits-all solution. Hydrogen fuel could potentially be the key to filling this gap. 

EVs vs. HFCVs

Working mechanisms

Hydrogen Fuel Cell Vehicles (HFCVs): Hydrogen fuel cells generate electricity through an electrochemical reaction between hydrogen and oxygen. The electricity produced is used to power an electric motor, which drives the car. The only byproduct of this process is water vapour. 

Electric Vehicles (EVs): A motor is powered directly from a charged battery, and equally produces no harmful emissions.  

As a result of large investments, electric vehicles have already established a strong footing in the UK market, prompting the declining cost of batteries as well as increasing availability of EV charging points in the UK. However, for many households and commercial uses, electric vehicles are not accessible forms of transport due to key barriers including the extensive charging time (around 8 hours), the weight of batteries for large vehicles, and performance decline in cold weather due to lithium-ion batteries being highly sensitive to temperature. 

HFCVs directly address these problems and present a sustainable and competitive alternative. As the refuelling process is the same as petrol and diesel cars, fuel tanks can be filled in the space of a few minutes and are notably weight efficient. A heavy-duty electric vehicle on the other hand can require a battery of around 7000 kg. 

Advantages of HFCVs:

• Significantly shorter refuelling times

• Can achieve 300-400 miles on a full tank

• Maintain performance in cold weather and under heavy loads

• Lighter and more energy-dense than electric vehicles

Disadvantages:

• Expensive as they’re not yet widely available 

• Lack of refuelling infrastructure 

• The current primary method of hydrogen production produces CO2 as a byproduct

Despite the key advantages hydrogen cars offer, there are currently only 2 available models of HFC cars in the UK, including the Toyota Mirai (Figure 2) and the Hyundai Nexo SUV. As a result, there are currently fewer than 20 refuelling stations available nationwide, compared to the many thousands of charging points available across the country for electric vehicles. One of the main reasons why progress in hydrogen fuel production has been so delayed is because hydrogen, despite being the most abundant element in the universe, is only available on earth in compound form and needs to be extracted using chemical processes. 

The true sustainability of hydrogen production

There are currently two main methods to extract hydrogen from nature, including steam-methane reforming and electrolysis. Hydrogen is colour-graded by production method to indicate whether it is renewable. 

Green/ yellow hydrogen

The cleanest process for hydrogen production is electrolysis, where a current separates hydrogen from pure water. If the current is sourced from renewable energy, it’s known as green hydrogen. If it’s connected via the grid, then it’s called yellow hydrogen. 

The source of electricity is particularly important because the electrolysis process is about 75% efficient, which translates to higher costs yet cleaner air.

Grey/ blue hydrogen

Hydrogen can also be produced by treating natural gas or methane with hot steam. During this process, the methane splits into its four hydrogen atoms while one carbon atom bonds to oxygen and enters the atmosphere as carbon dioxide. This is known as grey hydrogen. If the carbon dioxide can be captured and stored via direct air capture, it’s called blue hydrogen.

About 95% of all hydrogen in Europe is produced by methane steam reforming (grey and blue hydrogen), as it is very energy efficient and uses up lots of natural gas in the process, a resource that is quickly diminishing in importance and value as more and more households switch from gas boilers to heat pumps. Two percent of the world’s carbon emissions comes from the grey hydrogen process to produce ammonia for fertiliser and for steel production. For context, this is almost the same as the entire aviation industry. 

For HFCVs to be a truly sustainable alternative to combustion engines, green hydrogen via electrolysis (or another clean process) needs to be more widely available and economically viable.  

The UK’s plans for hydrogen

As part of the UK hydrogen strategy (Figure 3), the UK aims to reach up to 10GW or low carbon hydrogen production by 2030 (or equivalent to the amount of gas consumed by 3 million households in the UK annually). The government has allocated £240 million to develop hydrogen production and infrastructure. This is particularly for industry uses in the production of steel and cement, and for heavy goods vehicles (HGVs). Plans were also made to extend the use of hydrogen to heat homes, starting with ‘hydrogen village trials’ in 2025, to inform how 100% hydrogen communities would work, although this has understandably been met with local opposition. With greater research, information, and development into hydrogen for domestic uses, the applications of hydrogen energy may extend from industry and transport to households. As car companies (particularly Toyota, Hyundai, and BMW) continue to develop hydrogen car makes, and further investment is made into increased refuelling infrastructure and hydrogen fuel cell research, as well as with the ban on the sale of new combustion engine cars by 2035, commercial hydrogen cars have the potential to be commonly found on UK roads by 2040. 

Conclusion

For now, HFCVs remain in the early stages of development, however they present a promising opportunity for the UK to diversify its clean transport options, particularly in areas where EV technology faces limitations such as for heavy goods vehicles. 

Rather than being competitors, it is likely that EVs and HFCVs will soon coexist, with each technology serving different needs. 

The biggest barrier to the progress of HFCVs currently is developing a full hydrogen refuelling infrastructure, where the gas is produced and then transported to stations across the nation, will take billions of pounds and a number of years to develop. If these initial hurdles could be overcome, HFCV technology can quickly become more practically and financially accessible. 

Written by Varuna Ganeshamoorthy

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