Volvo testing hydrogen semis

[Brad]

Volvo's commercial truck group is testing out hydrogen fuel cell semis

https://www.theverge.com/2022/6/21/23177624/volvo-trucks-tests-hydrogen-fuel-cell-semi

600 mile range but no place to fuel them

[rcjordan]

Refueling/recharging infrastructure is going to be an on-going problem.  Hydrogen would work pretty well for trains, though.

[ergophobe]

One thing about hydrogen, though, is it is basically everywhere. So I could envision building hydrogen plants around the world, rather than having to move supertankers of it from the Saudi Arabia or run huge long strings of metal everywhere.

I tend to agree with you though, at least in the short term. But I do wonder sometimes if all this battery stuff is just a bridge technology to better things.

[Drastic]

I think we've missed the mark by not going hydrogen to start. My auto client who handles EV repairs says it is impossible to put out a battery fire once it is lit. All of the garage and under level parking will be a major fire hazard where if one car goes up, it will probably take the entire building with it.

[rcjordan]

>impossible to put out a battery fire once it is lit. All of the garage and

Yeah, it goes white-hot.  I've made a post around here somewhere about keeping EVs outdoors if I get one.

[ergophobe]

As I mentioned, that's a lot of why we have Lithium-Iron batteries for the house instead of Lithium-Cobalt. I think this is a problem particular to Lithium-Cobalt (or at least particularly acute in Li-Co batteries), which is what you have in power tools, laptops, phones and all Tesla products, including the Powerwall.

Not that hydrogen is not flammable/explosive though. Hydrogen fires tend to be less destructive than gasoline fires though - the Hindenberg hydrogen burned out in 90 seconds. One engineer said that if the planes that hit the Twin Towers had been hydrogen-fueled, the towers likely would not have come down.

[rcjordan]

>client who handles EV repairs

Besides the battery, evs are incorporating exotic materials and frame structures trying to reduce weight.  Bubba's Ye Olde Body Shoppe ain't going to be able to slap some bondo on carbon fiber panels or straighten DIE-CAST aluminum frames (Tesla Y uses front & rear die-cast frames).

+
Tesla Shares Rare Video Of World's Largest Die Casting Machine
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kzXYZngXGyE

[rcjordan]

>infrastructure

Only 6k high-speed charging stations in the US;

https://wp.technologyreview.com/wp-content/uploads/2022/06/JA22_Tech-EV-Final-1.png

[ergophobe]

Perspective: 145,000 gas stations

That's not quite a fair comparison because most people can't fill the gas tank at home. A good comparison would be number of stations within 1 mile of I-80, which crosses through a good section of the US

[Drastic]

I think a better comparison would be the number of publicly available charging stations.

This article says there are 46k, totaling 116k ports but only 6k of them are fast-charging:
https://cars.usnews.com/cars-trucks/ev-charging-stations

[rcjordan]

>116k ports but only 6k of them are fast-charging

You ain't going to be very happy using the 110k slow-chargers unless you're spending the night.  The charging rate for those is around 25 miles per hour of charge.

[Drastic]

>ain't going to be very happy using the 110k slow-chargers

Agreed. I'm guessing this is only really viable for daytime spots while parked at worked.

[rcjordan]

>at work

Yeah, and a couple at some hotels.