The debate over FCV hydrogen fuel cells and BEV pure electric has intensified in the past 2021.
Many people can't understand that pure electric vehicles have become more and more mature, and many people have considered pure electric when buying cars. But hydrogen fuel cell vehicles are still too far from our lives, why spend a lot of effort to develop?
Anyway, the country is promoting FCV and BEV at the same time, and many countries are doing the same, and the reason for this must have great wisdom.
So as ordinary people, what is the difference between FCV and BEV at this stage? Let's compare:
Mileage and replenishment time, hydrogen fuel cells win
This has always been the pain point of pure electric vehicles, although now pure electric endurance is getting longer and longer, but it is achieved by increasing the battery capacity, and there is no essential breakthrough in battery technology. Limited by the characteristics of the battery and the ability of the grid to withstand, fast charging or power exchange, is not an ideal solution.
On the contrary, the hydrogen battery can be like a fuel vehicle, and it can be filled with hydrogen in a few minutes. Casually increasing the capacity of the hydrogen storage tank, without adding too much cost and weight, can easily range more than 1000 kilometers. Therefore, hydrogen fuel cells will be developed first in the field of commercial vehicles.
Low temperature performance, hydrogen fuel cells win
The characteristics of lithium batteries, especially lithium iron phosphate batteries, low temperature performance becomes worse and shorter, and the cold winter in northern China is unacceptable. This problem is a material property and cannot be easily solved.
On the contrary, hydrogen fuel cell stacks can easily work normally at minus 30 degrees, or even minus 40 degrees. So why even Land Rover is developing hydrogen fuel cells, because in the future their off-road SUVs will have to adapt to low temperature performance.
The cost of use, pure electric vehicles win
Unfortunately, this is the biggest pain point for hydrogen fuel cell vehicles. At present, the most mature Toyota's second-generation Mirai land is priced at 7.1 million yen in Japan and 69,000 euros overseas, all of which are around 500,000 yuan. This is much higher than the same level of pure electric vehicles.
At this stage, hydrogen manufacturing is divided into gray hydrogen, blue hydrogen and green hydrogen, the first two refer to the use of fossil materials to produce hydrogen, and green hydrogen is a renewable energy source, basically refers to the electrolysis of water to produce hydrogen. In any case, the cost of hydrogen production is several times that of gasoline, and it is far from pure electric vehicles.
To reduce the cost of hydrogen fuel, it is only possible to wait for the large-scale use of green hydrogen technology.
The body is lightweight, and the hydrogen fuel cell wins
Before the breakthrough of battery technology, by increasing the battery, the pure electric vehicle is overwhelmed. This is also the reason why commercial vehicles cannot take the BEV route, because the heavy truck that increases the battery is equivalent to not pulling the goods, but pulling the battery.
The power unit of the hydrogen fuel cell vehicle can be slightly higher than the current fuel vehicle, the Toyota Mirai body size 4973x1884x1468 mm, wheelbase 2918 mm, the weight of the car 1900kg. But it has an endurance of 850 km.
Power performance, pure electric vehicles win
In fact, many people do not know that hydrogen fuel cell vehicles are also a kind of electric vehicle, which relies on hydrogen chemical energy to generate electricity and then supply electric motors to drive. Pure electric vehicles are powered by large batteries, and the structure is simpler.
But there is a problem, hydrogen fuel cell vehicles are actually a hybrid, because the power of hydrogen fuel reactors is relatively small, the current mainstream fuel cell stack power is 100kW (Toyota Mirai is 114kW). So the hydrogen fuel cell vehicle also has a lithium battery energy storage, which provides instantaneous high-current use like the hybrid.
Due to the limited output power of the stack, hydrogen fuel cell vehicles are generally positioned as a comfortable transportation. For example, toyota Mirai motor has a maximum power of 134kW, a peak torque of 300 Nm, and the heavy power of pushing 1900kg can only be considered average.
The convenience of replenishment, pure electric vehicles win
One of the biggest difficulties in the popularization of hydrogen fuel cell vehicles is that the construction cost of hydrogen refueling stations is high, and it is impossible to be as convenient as the charging pile of pure electric vehicles. So now the direction is commercial vehicles, commercial vehicles are generally more fixed hydrogen refueling stations, easy to popularize.
Fuel safety, not good to assess
Hydrogen is flammable and explosive, and everyone is very worried about its safety. But security depends on what level of protection you do, not on the material itself. This is like questioning the dangers of living in a high-rise building, which is more dangerous than the bottom layer.