Infrastructure is never going to be sufficient to support an electrified Taxi & Private Hire Trade at the current levels of advancement, but again I say remember VHS vs Betamax?
Even if infrastructure in charging took a massive, miraculous leap forward in provision, could the National Grid even cope with the demand anyway?
For anyone who understands how a Hybrid Car of the future works – a battery powered electric motor driving the wheels with a combustion engine tagged on to act as a generator for additional electricity on demand and for charging – will also understand how a Hydrogen Fuel Cell Car works. It is essentially the same format, but swap the combustion engine for a Fuel Cell which emits nothing but water vapour. See how it works here.
Auto Express – Hydrogen Fuel Cell: Does it have a future
“Every single major manufacturer is either looking at or working on hydrogen cars,” says Jon Hunt, a marketing manager for Toyota and head of commercialisation of hydrogen fuel cell vehicles.”
“Lithium-ion battery production [for electric vehicles] is very energy-intensive. As an example, a 100kWh battery will give a potential range of 250 miles and, in order to produce that battery, it will take around 20 tonnes of CO2,” says Hunt.”
N.B. 20 tonnes of C02 is equivalent to about 60k miles of driving in an average car! See here
This nifty little Hydrogen driven creation is as self reliant as a petrol, diesel or LPG powered vehicle, as it does not require the very expensive installation of charging infrastructure everywhere, as it just requires to be re-fueled or re-gassed just as you would a vehicle converted to run on LPG. Therefore the infrastructure required is much less, and much more practical and cost effective, as you only need to retro-fit existing fuel stations in the same way this was done for LPG. Hence, with a Hydrogen Fuel Cell car, you would simply pull into a fuel station and re-gas and go again!
Hydrogen Fuel Cell Cars currently available:
With a price tag of around £50-65k, we are still years away from mainstream, but I think we are being misled by political rhetoric at the moment, suggesting that installing charging points is the answer to the problem, when actually electric battery cars look like the least sustainable option. VHS or Betamax? The Hydrogen Fuel Cell is on it’s way, and I suspect those who bought battery electric will end up being laughed at, and all those millions spent on charging points wasted.
Daily Express article – Published Sat Sept 10, 2019
“The UK has seen an estimated 28 percent increase in charging points year on year since 2016.”
“But Britain is still set to only have 322 public stations per 10,000 low emission cars by 2034 which could cause carnage amongst road users – with 123,000 vehicles on the roads, there is only one station per every 30 cars as it currently stands.”