What factors led to shift away from pursuing hydrogen-powered cars in favor of electric vehicles?
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Hydrogen has extremely low energy per unit volume. To make the tank sizes manageable you need to increase the density by either storing it at high pressures (10,000+ PSI) or at extremely low temperatures (-423°F). Both of those options require expensive storage tanks for the trucks hauling it to gas stations, the gas stations themselves, and the cars that fill up at the gas station. For the low temperature option, the hydrogen will boil as it heats up, requiring a vent to periodically reduce the pressure in the tank. This vented hydrogen is both flammable and a waste of money.
Hydrogen is mostly produced via natural gas, which isn’t the cleanest of processes. Might as well just run the car on natural gas if you are going to use that process. The other common method is electrolysis, where water is zapped with electricity and it splits into oxygen and hydrogen. This isn’t particularly efficient from an electricity standpoint. Then it needs to be compressed or chilled, consuming more electricity. Then it needs to be trucked or piped to a gas station, consuming even more energy. From there it needs to be continuously chilled or compressed to be able to put it into a vehicle. And then it needs to go through a fuel cell to recombine with oxygen and form water, creating electricity, which is not all that efficient either.
TLDR, It takes a lot of electricity to make hydrogen, store hydrogen, and move hydrogen, just for the hydrogen to make electricity in the car. It’s way easier and more efficient to just directly put electricity in the car.
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