What factors led to shift away from pursuing hydrogen-powered cars in favor of electric vehicles?
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The real pivot point came during the Obama era. When he came into office, the global economy was in a massive recession. They put together a massive spending package to update certain aspects of infrastructure while putting people to work in order to ease unemployment. Many of these projects had the intent of creating a greener infrastructure in the future. There were a lot of propositions as to where this (I think $800 billion would go.) investment in infrastructure for both EV and hydrogen cars were considered. They chose EVs. That rational was that this was an easier transition. Electricity already runs everywhere. All you need are charging points, which can literally sit in front of a parking spot. Hydrogen on the other hand would’ve required a massive infrastructure overhaul. There is no “pipeline” for mass produced liquid hydrogen to be created, transported and distributed at stations. A hydrogen station basically requires either a new gas station or a phasing out of an existing gas station, which we obviously aren’t able to get rid of yet. So the EV won out.
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