Hydrogen 'won’t become a reality in private mobility', says VW chief technology officer
German manufacturer ‘can live wonderfully’ with only electric batteries, Kai Grünitz tells website
The chief technology officer for the Volkswagen brand has said that he “definitely doesn’t see” hydrogen being used at VW, explaining that “it won’t become a reality in private mobility anyway”.
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“Hydrogen is important for the chemical industry, plastics or steel production… there are only limited amounts of hydrogen available.
“We at VW can live wonderfully with electric batteries. Hydrogen propulsion is really not an issue for us in the foreseeable future.”
“For the customers, for the industry, for employment, for the climate, from every angle you look at, that is a dangerous path to go [down],” he told Bloomberg in October last year, although he did not explain his rationale behind this thinking.
It is generally believed that battery electric cars will be cheaper to buy, maintain and operate than hydrogen-powered equivalents, as the latter contain far more moving parts, and converting electricity to green hydrogen and back to electricity inside the vehicle requires about twice as much power than just using it directly in a battery, with accompanying higher running costs.
However, there may well be use cases where drivers cannot afford to wait long periods of time for their batteries to recharge, for instance for regular long journeys or when a vehicle is being used as a taxi by different drivers around the clock.