What factors led to shift away from pursuing hydrogen-powered cars in favor of electric vehicles?

Question

What factors led to shift away from pursuing hydrogen-powered cars in favor of electric vehicles?

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Answer 1

Batteries are large and heavy for the amount of energy they can store. Hydrogen, as a compressed gas, is more energy dense (but the containers and fuel handling equipment are heavy). 20 years ago, it appeared that batteries would be too heavy and short range to be useful. Improvements to batteries, largely motivated by portable electronics, have led to much more capable and low cost batteries than the predictions of 20 years ago assumed.