Hydrogen cars: who is making them, and do they represent the most realistic EV future?

Hydrogen cars have some significant virtues even for those who have only appliance-level expectations of their vehicles. But who is making hydrogen cars?

Quickly refueled at a gas pump dispensing liquid hydrogen that creates electricity to run one or more electric motors, cars with hydrogen fuel cell powertrains offer a level of convenience that beats the still pretty long charge time of even the fastest-charging plug-in EVs.

If the industry builds a nationwide refueling infrastructure to support hydrogen cars, range anxiety will no longer need to be an issue. But here’s the catch: currently, no such infrastructure to speak of exists, except in California—where the network of refueling stations for hydrogen fuel cell cars is still pretty sparse.  

But that could change, and the current industries built around the distribution of gasoline have obvious motivations to do everything they can to help make hydrogen cars the dominant choice for electric cars. They could continue operating with little change to their business model, and repurpose much of their existing base of assets that currently get gasoline into tanks.

The biggest difference is that they would be dispensing liquid hydrogen instead of gasoline for their customers, who could continue to use the same C-stores and standalone gas stations they currently use.

And let’s look at the picture from the point of view of those customers as well. For them, there would be less need to make changes to their lifestyles and habits if they own hydrogen cars. There would be no need to purchase a dedicated charging station to plug in a battery EV and no need to spend significant time waiting for a battery to recharge in the middle of a long roadtrip. And the pitfalls of battery EV ownership for those in certain residential situations, such as apartment dwellers and urban residents, could largely evaporate.

With all the benefits of hydrogen cars in addressing the perceived pitfalls of battery EVs, you might wonder why the EV hype still centers on battery-powered cars, even as research and development of hydrogen cars continues under the radar.

Which automakers are conducting this under-the-radar R&D into hydrogen cars?

Let’s take a look at what some major automakers are doing.

Toyota and Hydrogen Cars

Toyota’s current offering in the hydrogen cars space—the Toyota Mirai—is arguably the most visible, at least in the U.S. While it is a reasonably nice looking car, it isn’t a vehicle that offers much to the enthusiast crowd, even though that is just the market segment that Toyota seems to be aiming to impress. They automaker is positioning the Toyota Mirai as a sports-luxury FCEV (fuel cell electric vehicle), with a rear-wheel-drive powertrain and a low-profile, wide stance.

But by today’s standards, it’s a bit underpowered, with the AC synchronous electric generator motor delivering 182 horsepower and 221 pound-feet of torque. And the 9.2-second 0-60 acceleration is an eternity compared to many EVs. So while the interior does live up to the “luxury half” of the sport-luxury proposition, the “sport” side of the equation is quite a stretch. With the vehicle as it currently stands, they might be pitching it to the wrong segment of the market, even though it’s clearly, by many measures, a quite appealing car.

Hyundai Nexo

Hyundai boasts a long history with hydrogen cars, claiming to be “one of the first manufacturers to make hydrogen fuel cell vehicles commercially available and the first to introduce a fuel cell SUV.”

They date the origin of their hydrogen cars program to 1998, when they established a research team dedicated to hydrogen fuel cell electric vehicle technology.

Currently, their most visible offering on the hydrogen cars market is the Hyundai Nexo SUV. According to the automaker, the permanent-magnet motor in the hydrogen fuel cell SUV produces 161 horsepower and is good for a range of 380 miles, with a refueling time of five minutes at a station that refuels hydrogen fuel cell vehicles—which, in the U.S., are located primarily in California, the only state where consumers can purchase the Hyundai Nexo, and only from select Hyundai dealers.

From an enthusiast’s perspective, it looks like a fairly unremarkable SUV, inside and out. While Hyundai offers a variety of engaging vehicles across their entire lineup, it’s noteworthy that, unlike Toyota, they seem to have made little effort to infuse any level of excitement into their hydrogen fuel cell offering.

Honda Clarity

A relatively nondescript, Accord-like sedan, the Clarity is Honda’s offering on the hydrogen cars market. When production began in 2008, the Honda clarity was available only as a hydrogen fuel cell EV, but the automaker added a plug-in hybrid model to the lineup in 2017. Unlike the hydrogen fuel cell version, the Honda Clarity plug-in hybrid can be ordered throughout the U.S., even though it is stocked only by select Honda dealers in California.

Honda introduced a battery electric version of the Honda Clarity in 2016, but the range was a paltry 89 miles and availability was limited to leases in California and Oregon only. In 2019, the battery electric version of the Honda Clarity was discontinued.

Mazda: An Early Foray into Hydrogen Cars

As is often the case with Mazda, their story is interesting when it comes to their history with hydrogen cars. Currently, they do not offer a production hydrogen vehicle, but they are not exactly absent from the hydrogen cars space, either.

Perhaps their best known foray into hydrogen cars was a hybrid concept car based on the RX-8, the most recent generation of the legendary Mazda RX series of sports cars powered by Wankel rotary engines. The hydrogen-powered concept car, unveiled at the 2004 North American International Auto show, was a hybrid EV that used a rotary engine as a generator producing electricity to drive an electric motor. The rotary engine in the RX-8 was capable of running on either gasoline or liquid hydrogen.

Unlike the RX-8 sports cars that Mazda sold commercially, there was no direct connection between the engine and the powertrain. The rotary engine served only as a source of electric power for the motor that actually turned the wheels.

But it wasn’t a fuel cell vehicle. The Wankel Rotary engine is an internal combustion engine, but with different architecture than the inline four-cylinder, V8, V6, and straight-six ICE architectures that we’re all so familiar with. For the RX-8 hydrogen/gasoline hybrid, Mazda tweaked the engineering of the rotary engine so that it could use either hydrogen or gasoline for internal combustion.

The Mazda RX-8 hydrogen hybrid had two fuel tanks—one for gasoline and one for hydrogen. And according to Motor Trend, the vehicle could switch on the fly between the two fuels.

Mazda’s approach to hydrogen cars was ahead of its time and, to an extent, the automaker did translate this experiment into a commercial venture, offering this powertrain design in commercial vehicles for lease on the Japanese market.

But, as of now, a Mazda hydrogen-powered vehicle is not joining the likes of the Mirai on the U.S. market.  

Nissan

Compared to Mazda, Nissan’s current involvement in hydrogen cars looks even more limited. That said, They have made some forays into the space. For example, a document on the Nissan Global website outlines the development of what the automaker describes as a “Next Generation Fuel Cell Stack” that achieves higher levels of power generation and performance, with capability to be combined with “EV technology that has already been made into practical use with Nissan LEAF,” real-world applications of FCEVs (fuel cell electric vehicles) a step closer to reality. And Car and Driver in 2016 reported another related Nissan effort, revealing a minivan prototype integrating technology capable of extracting hydrogen for electricity production from biofuels, such as “ethanol derived from corn or sugar cane.” The downside, however, is the process of extracting hydrogen from these biofuels itself consumes energy and results in some carbon-containing emissions.

Nevertheless, while lacking a high-profile offering like the Toyota Mirai, Nissan’s membership in the Fuel Cell & Hydrogen Energy Association (FCHEA) underscores that the company, like other automakers, is positioning itself for a possible future in which hydrogen cars are an important part of the automotive market. In their member profile for Nissan, FCHEA spotlights Nissan’s fuel-cell stack technology and three-way agreement with Daimler AG and Ford for the joint development of a common fuel cell system.

When you see this kind of cooperation among competing automakers, it’s a pretty good sign that the emerging technology that powers hydrogen cars is something to take seriously.

General Motors (GM) and Hydrogen Cars

Currently, GM isn’t offering hydrogen cars for the consumer market. As noted by Green Car Reports, GM has a history of over 15 years with hydrogen cars and continues a partnership with Honda on various aspects of hydrogen fuel cell technology, even as the automaker “backs away from hydrogen fuel-cell tech in passenger vehicles.” Last year, GM also announced that they are supplying their Hydrotec fuel cell power cubes for Navistar’s International^® RHTM Series.

In terms of passenger cars for consumers, however, GM currently seems to be in a “watchful waiting” posture. Detroit, after all, has a decades-long track record of being more reactive than proactive when it comes to shifting market interests, including the shifts after energy crunches of the 70s and 80s toward more fuel efficient vehicles.

So when it comes to the potential of hydrogen cars to be widely adopted on the consumer market, GM, while continuing to shove some of its chips into the hydrogen pot, appears content to let other automakers like Toyota, Honda, and Hyundai take the bigger risks.

Ford: All is Relatively Quiet on the Hydrogen Front

In contrast to GM, who, in spite of an apparent lack of active pursuit of the potential market for hydrogen cars, is still keeping a toe in the water, Ford’s efforts in this area seem minimal and specialized. Although they have dabbled with hydrogen fuel cell technology with experimental versions of the Ford Fusion and Ford Focus, evidence appears to be lacking of a clear effort toward launching hydrogen cars for the consumer market.

In a report called “Helping to Build a Better World,” their “Integrated Sustainability and Financial Report for 2021,” Ford notes the following:

To reach our goal of carbon neutrality, we are focusing on battery electric vehicles (BEVs) and hydrogen fuel cell vehicles (FCVs). Our BEV efforts are directed primarily toward light duty vehicles. We continue to invest in the development of hydrogen fuel cell technology, with a primary focus on medium-/heavy-duty vehicles due to where FCVs offer payload and uptime advantages versus BEV technology for total cost of ownership benefits. During the transition, we continue to offer other alternative fuel-powered vehicles.

So it appears that, for now, passenger cars don’t figure in Ford’s hydrogen plans. Moreover, the automaker appears somewhat aligned with those who lean toward skepticism when it comes to the net environmental benefits of hydrogen cars and even battery electric vehicles.

Making a point that may seem somewhat surprising in a 2021 document in the context of their heavily hyped launch of the Mustang Mach-E, Ford notes in the same report that both battery electric vehicles (BEVs) and hydrogen fuel-cell vehicles (FCVs) “have no tailpipe emissions but, from a life cycle perspective, are not zero-emission. Upstream electricity generation for charging BEVs and hydrogen production for FCVs emit air pollutants at levels that can be comparable to ICEV tailpipe emissions [emphasis ours], although they are not typically emitted in urban areas.”

Corporations are large and complex entities, and Ford is no exception. Are there elements within Ford who are aligned with those who insist that the shift away from internal combustion engines is not environmentally warranted, and that the current hype surrounding EVs as a panacea is driven by hidden motives other than express claims about environmental benefits?

That’s hard to say, but the statement above is perplexing. At a minimum, in spite of the high profile of the Mach-E launch, it does suggest that we shouldn’t hold our breath while waiting for a hydrogen-powered Mustang GT or F-150.

Stellantis

Like Ford, Stellantis, the umbrella brand that in North America now encompasses the Alfa Romeo, Dodge, Chrysler, Fiat, Jeep, and Ram marques, also seems inactive in the hydrogen cars space compared to the likes of Toyota, Hyundai, and Honda

A Google search on the exact phrase “hydrogen fuel cell” limited to the past 12 months on the stellantisnorthamerica.com domain—which is home to their U.S. media website—produced only one result, a 2006 press release that referenced plans to deliver hydrogen fuel cell vans by the end of 2021. However, the same search limited to the stellantis.com domain for the same time period does show some signs of hydrogen life.

For example, a press kit released in March 21, 2021, in conjunction with videos from a hydrogen fuel cell technology reveal, focuses on the components of a hydrogen fuel cell drivetrain with an emphasis on applications to light commercial vehicles such as delivery vans. These efforts also appear to be confined to the European market, for now, under the Peugeot, Citroën and Opel marques.

So, to say the least, we probably shouldn’t anticipate a launch by Mopar of a Challenger custom build propelled by a HydroHell powertrain at SEMA this fall.

European Automakers

Beyond the European brands that are now under the Stellantis umbrella, we made a quick scan of what’s happening with some selected European marques and did find a few signs of life when it comes to hydrogen cars.

Daimler/Mercedes-Benz. Yes, Mercedes does have a presence in the hydrogen fuel cell space, but, currently, the focus is primarily on heavier commercial vehicles. In May 2021, for example, Daimler Trucks announced the start of testing of the new GenH2 Truck prototype, which applies the hydrogen fuel cell EV architecture to long-haul trucks, aiming for ranges up to around 1,000 KM (about 621 miles).

In terms of hydrogen passenger cars, Mercedes did make a foray into a hydrogen fuel cell crossover, the Mercedes-Benz GLC F-Cell, which the automaker introduced at the 2017 IAA International Motor Show in Frankfurt. However, according to an April 2020 article in Green Car Reports, Daimler has officially ended fuel cell production for passenger cars, including the GLC F-Cell, citing production costs for fuel-cell vehicles that exceed the expense of manufacturing battery EVs by a factor of two.  

But that could of course change as the surrounding technology continues to advance. So it would be a mistake to entirely write off the potential of Mercedes to eventually put more skin in the hydrogen cars game.

BMW Group. Perhaps not so surprisingly from an automaker with such a strong track record for innovation, BMW is adding its own special twist to the hydrogen powered segment.

Sure, there isn’t anything especially earth-shattering about the BMW i Hydrogen Next, a version of the automaker’s X5 crossover with a hydrogen fuel cell powertrain.

What is different, however, is the automaker’s current interest, spotlighted in a press release issued on May 27, 2021, in using hydrogen to power the automotive manufacturing process itself to lower the overall carbon footprint of their business, beyond the effort to achieve zero tailpipe emissions from their automotive products themselves.

In the words of the director of BMW’s Leipzig manufacturing plant, “Our vision is to fully decarbonise production by replacing fossil fuels with future fuels in the shape of green hydrogen.”

This bigger vision for hydrogen, which extends well beyond just making hydrogen cars, aligns well with Toyota’s vision of a “City of the Future,” with the city itself meeting its energy needs through hydrogen fuel cells.  

Volkswagen Group. References to hydrogen are all but absent from Volkswagen’s U.S. media website. And if reporting from The Driven via the Financial Times (not too shabby when it comes to credible sources) is to be believed, Volkswagen CEO Hermann Diess is all but entirely dismissing the future of hydrogen fuel cells as a source of power for the supposedly inevitable EV-dominated future.

As quoted in The Driven, Diess told the Financial Times in March 2021 that “You won’t see any hydrogen usage in cars…. Not even in 10 years, because the physics behind it are so unreasonable.”

That said, physics might not be the only motivating factor behind this position. Volkswagen made among the biggest and earliest bets of any non-Tesla automaker on a future dominated by battery EVs, pledging in September 2019 to have a fully battery-electric lineup by 2026.

That’s now less than five years away. And having to back away from a promise that big and that definitive could be at a minimum embarrassing, if not also very costly.

There’s probably a damn good reason why the other automakers we’ve looked at are keeping at least some of their eggs in the hydrogen cars basket. Maybe Diess is right that the physics and environmental considerations don’t entirely add up. But a more accurate understanding might be that they just don’t add up yet.

And it’s a big mistake to underestimate the power in the market of the convenience factor of being able to quickly refuel hydrogen cars in a few short minutes, an experience likely to closely resemble the current gas-station experience that consumers have been accustomed to for virtually a century.

If forced to bet on the issue, my bet would be that it’s Volkswagen that’s making the mistake here, rather than the significant portion of the rest of the industry that’s putting at least some of their bets on a possible future for hydrogen cars.

But What About the Impact of Hydrogen Cars on the Enthusiasts Market?

By and large, the hydrogen fuel cell cars on the market or in serious R&D don’t seem to have a whole heck of a lot to offer those of us who value the thrills that internal-combustion-powered cars bring to the driving experience.

They tend to be underpowered compared to even ordinary “appliance vehicles” powered by internal combustion engines.

But when you look at efforts by two automakers, one in the past from Mazda and one very recent development by Toyota, a potentially different picture emerges. That said, it’s based on hydrogen combustion engines, not on hydrogen fuel cells.

As I noted above, Mazda of course went the hydrogen combustion route 17 years ago with the RX-8 Hydrogen. But the rotary engine was used strictly as a generator for that hybrid sports car. And with the electric motor producing only 109 horsepower and a top speed of only 105 mph, calling it a sports car with this powerplant was a bit of a stretch.

Yet Toyota, whose hydrogen efforts up to now have focused on the Mirai hydrogen fuel cell EV, made an announcement recently that took some in the automotive community by surprise. The announced that they had equipped a race car, based on the Toyota Hatchback, with a hydrogen combustion engine.

The hydrogen-powered race car made its motorsports debut at the Round 3 NAPAC Fuji Super TEC 24 Hours Race on May 21–23, 2021. What was perhaps most interesting about the announcement, however, was Toyota’s emphasis on experiential qualities that hydrogen combustion engines may bring to the table for enthusiasts.

Sure, plug-in battery EVs can offer plenty of excitement from the perspective of their pure horsepower, torque, and acceleration. But as enthusiasts frequently point out, something still seems to be missing—the raw, visceral sense of connectivity with the powertrain that comes with controlling an explosive internal-combustion engine.

A lot of that feeling comes not so much from the power that throws you back in the seat, but from the aural and tactile sensations that come from the frenzied movement of pistons and valves propelled by the explosion of fuel-air mixture inside combustion chambers, producing those wonderful exhaust notes we love.

With a hydrogen combustion engine, those aspects of the driving experience can be maintained in a much more eco-friendly way. Here’s how Toyota puts it in their press release announcing their hydrogen-powered Corolla racer:

While having excellent environmental performance, hydrogen engines also have the potential to relay the fun of driving, including through sounds and vibrations.

The sound of the hydrogen Corolla is, indeed, exquisite, and you can check it out for yourself in this video that Toyota posted on their Toyota Times YouTube channel.

Hydrogen Cars: The Big Picture

We haven’t looked at every automaker in the world in this effort to get a handle on what’s really happening in the world of hydrogen cars. But among those we did scan, there’s an important common thread: not one of them is choosing to be entirely absent from the hydrogen cars space.

At this point, the players in the industry are just starting to place the pieces on the chessboard, in preparation for a game that will play itself out in the marketplace to determine what form of powertrain architecture will dominate the automotive future. Will plug-in battery EVs prevail, the way that Tesla is betting they will? Or will the convenience of the rapid-refueling capabilities of hydrogen cars, in either the fuel cell or combustion engine configuration, win over the consumer? Time will surely tell.

Meanwhile, it’s an enticing prospect that hydrogen could keep the thrill factor of motoring alive, with delightfully noisy hydrogen combustion engines vibrating us into driving ecstasy.

With so many automakers at least taking tentative steps into the hydrogen cars domain, its tough to dismiss the possibility that hydrogen will play a significant part in, if not dominate, the automotive future. But it’s still premature to uncork the champagne now and declare the question resolved of whether the emerging automotive future will have much to offer enthusiasts, given remaining uncertainties surrounding issues like the production costs and net environmental impact of hydrogen cars.