I think that your analysis of battery power vs hydrogen is right on target. You are not alone, as many others have made similar arguments here.

As to telling the Chinese what to do about hydrogen, or anything else, I think that it would be extremely presumptious. China has had an extremely advanced culture and civilization since long before the United States of America was ever even thought of. I am confident that they are quite capable of telling s**t from Shinola without any input whatsoever from Mr. Wagoner, et al.

We should do the same here is the US only have flexibility on the range extender. Hummm, that is what we ARE doing. Why, because it makes sense to do so. Are we out building hydrogen infrastructure? No. Sure they have no infrastructure in some areas but can they really afford to move to hydrogen now? No. If the area was making money they would already have gas stations. Right? Hydrogen technology commands the highest prices when compared to other alternative technologies.

If they are going to build out infrastructure it should be in smart-charging ports at parking lots. Hydrogen will probably never make it for personal transportation due to the wasted steps and efficiency losses when compared to advanced batteries. However, even if hydrogen is used for some applications the charging ports will never be wasted. We can assume that the hydrogen cars will have some plug-in capability because grid electricity will always (ALWAYS) be cheaper than hydrogen.

If they do decide to build out hydrogen stations they should do it on the highways only. Hydrogen may turn out to be a good idea for heavy transport trucks because although it takes up 4 times the volume of diesel, hydrogen has 3 times the energy content by weight. Weight is one of the most important factors for cargo transportation.

I think companies should stop pushing hydrogen until there is at least one practical car built. The new Honda is beautiful but I would like to know how it performs in all conditions, how much it costs to operate (cost of hydrogen compared to just electricity), and a good estimate for the cost of the hydrogen systems (assuming they are mass produced). I feel when that is done the pure EV (with quick charge battery technology) will seem light years ahead.

People are concerned about the procedure to rapidly charge EVs. The answer is very simple. You have quick-charge stations with advanced batteries. The batteries are charged up all day and night (so no huge substation needs to be built). When a car comes to be charged direct battery-to-battery inductive charging is utilized. It will be quick, safe, extremely efficient. The whole system has almost no moving parts at all. Project Better Place proposes the swap-out station. This will also work well and those stations can eventually be converted to quick-charge stations. They will already have the underground storage for the batteries so modification should be fairly simple. If the swap-out station was designed from the start for that eventual conversion then even better.

If they set their minds to building hydrogen stations they should not spend too much effort in the supply infrastructure. Use natural gas CH4 for now and then move to advanced hydrolizers, should the new technology make it out of the lab. Building out huge hydrogen factories and the massive amount of liquid hydrogen transport trucks would be extremely costly and I believe ultimately wasteful.

After 5 years a much better analysis can be made regarding the full scale build out of hydrogen infrastructure. It’s my believe that 5 years from now battery technology will look many times better than fuel cell technology. Let’s face the facts. Hydrogen production is inefficient, very difficult to store and requires vastly different and expensive infrastructure. It also ties people to another liquid fuel. Home charging will be more difficult compared to home charging an EV. With an EV you connect the grid or solar panels to the batteries through a simple charger. No moving parts. No water supply, filters to mess with, complex technology to break down that requires a visit from a specialist. Perhaps it’s just too simple for some interested parties.

Thus, don’t tell the Chinese to go “all out” on hydrogen. Tell them to research it heavily and proceed with caution. Smart charging stations located at every parking spot will always be welcome and will fulfill the private transportation needs of most individuals. A carefully selected range extender (if needed) will fulfill the long travel gaps. Public transportation or long-range vehicle rental would probably be better option there.

Oh, and suggest they make their cars light and small. Get that culture ingrained as soon as possible! Look how hard we have it here in the US putting tiny Smart cars on the roads with Hummers. It’s probably going to take us 20 years to get those beasts off the roads. If ever! There seems to be trend to just make very large AND green vehicles. When you calculate the amount of energy that actually moves the person it’s quite embarrassing. However, as long as it’s sustainable and we remain competitive in the global marketplace then maybe we can afford that luxury, along with our McHouses.

Also most folks don’t know this but China already has tougher miles per gallon (whatever their equiv is to our CAFE) than what was just recently passed for CAFE increases over a dozen years from now.

The automakers claim they can’t do it, it will cost too much, etc, but they are or will have to be doing much better in China.

Yea, the comment that they should build nuclear power plants to split water into H2 is a joke that most folks are already wise to. It’s just plain so energy inefficient… see all the other posts on this here on this site or just google “hydrogen hoax”. Well to wheel. And it isn’t going to be any cheaper than gasoline is, not to mention you will continued to be tied to big oil who loves the idea as CH4 (natural gas) is the best source of H2.

And that “Brown’s Gas”, aka “Oxyhydrogen”….it still takes more energy to produce than you get out of it by combustion… and it seems very dangerous to store! See http://www.dangerouslaboratories.org/hydrogen1.html for one warning. No such thing as a perpetual motion machine….