Tech Talks: Why not Hydrogen?
Why does Audi focus on battery electric drives for individual mobility? What about e-fuels or green hydrogen? I am often asked these questions in the light of Audi’s clear commitment to pursue electromobility and to only introduce new all-electric models from 2026 onwards.?
In the short term, e-fuels can make an important contribution to reducing emissions as we still see a huge percentage of combustion-engined cars on the road. But to make one thing clear: if we really want substantial change, we cannot only focus on individual mobility.
I’m convinced that we need e-fuels and hydrogen to avoid using?fossil fuels in a variety of industries and spheres of life.
But looking at individual mobility, both have one thing in common: they only work with electricity. It all begins with green power. And a battery-electric system is still the most efficient way to reach the maximum range per kilowatt-hour.
Let’s?compare?an?electric drive?with a combustion engine that runs on?hydrogen-based e-fuels.
A combustion engine running on e-fuels that drives 100 kilometers using 5 liters of fuel will consume 100-kilowatt hours of power.
Electric drive systems?are about?five times more efficient:?you can already drive at least 500 kilometers farther in a battery electric vehicle.
Furthermore, other sectors need green hydrogen or synthetic fuels more urgently than we do. Just look at?aviation,?the?cement, or the steel industry.
Another thing that’s clear: we need a?climate-neutral energy sector as the foundation for climate-neutral mobility. If we don’t avoid the?efficiency losses of hydrogen-based or e-fuels-based individual mobility, it will be even harder to move completely away from fossil fuels.
To sum up: electric drive systems remain the most efficient.
And it makes me proud to be able to say that Audi is at the forefront in this transformation of the automotive industry.
Just as our purpose gets to the heart of it: meaningful technology to keep the world in motion.
Do you agree?
#FutureIsAnAttitude?#eMobility?#Automotive?#EV?#Innovation?#Sustainability
?? TECH WELL TOLD - die Nerd Dolmetscher. Wir machen Geek-Themen sexy ????
2 年Thanks for this article Oliver. I think no matter what technology a company chooses it’s never to focus on one. What most people don’t understand: when we talk about new technologies we often not only talk about the technology itself but the ecosystem around the technology that must be created. It’s not only a different drive train, it’s a different ecosystem - from the supply chain to the filling station. That’s expensive. That’s a huge task. If you want to do it right and efficiently you have to focus…
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2 年I fully agree with your article in terms of the best energy efficiency of battery electric cars Oliver Hoffmann But – WHAT IF? What if a tremendous amount of green hydrogen were produced in the sunny areas of our world? And what if specific transportation logistics for hydrogen were developed to the areas of demand? The logistics of hydrogen work already. The problem is the mass transportation of hydrogen. Whereas electricity can’t be transported over huge distances. The Project DESERTEC failed. And it can’t be stored. In the future Hydrogen will be necessary anyway for the drive of trucks and possibly planes. What if the advantages of H2 driven cars then could be realized: Independence from grid, range, no battery production and recycling?
illuminating and informative