Eli5, how do hydrogen cars work?

Question

Hi guys! Saw this article on BMW saying, hydrogen is the next best thing – from electric cars.

Can anyone ova here, explain in a nutshell how hydrogen cars work? How it’s stored? How it’s made / refined heard its (h2o something)?

The safety of it, in case of an accident?

The transportation of the liquid?

Also, can hydrogen cars accelerate as quick as the Tesla’s? 😯

Thanks!

In: Engineering

Answer 1

Short explanation. They take hydrogen and oxygen and put them in 2 separate containers. There’s a wall between them that hydrogen can go through but electrons cannot. So the hydrogen gets pulled to the oxygen to make water but the electrons need to go around the wall and that makes electricity. Water can also be separated with electricity. It’s basically an expensive way to use water as a battery.