A startup just showed why hydrogen vehicles are better than electric — but there's a catch Nikola Motor Company unveiled its hydrogen-powered truck, the Nikola One, on Thursday evening. The truck primarily relies on hydrogen fuel cells, but also comes with a 320 kWh battery, to achieve a range of 1,200 miles. To be clear, hydrogen vehicles are technically electric vehicles since they run on electric motors. The difference lies in how that motor is powered. For hydrogen vehicles, a hydrogen fuel cell generates the electricity that powers the electric motors. As Nikola showed with its truck, hydrogen-powered vehicles do come with batteries, but they aren't used for their main propulsion. In comparison, plug-in electric vehicles, like the Tesla Model S, come with a lithium-ion battery pack that powers the motor to keep the car moving. On a surface level, there are a lot of genuine benefits to using hydrogen fuel cells. The main benefit is that hydrogen-powered vehicles boast longer ranges than their plug-in EV counterparts. The ability to drive a truck for 1,200 miles without needing to stop for a refill is no joke. There is one big downside that the article covers, but to be quite honest, a similar downside was faced by gasoline / petrol vehicles back in the late 1800's..... and it was solved by having thousands of diesel powered trucks driving across the country to deliver fuel to every town. Thing is that delivery all adds costs and pollution of its own. Right now it does look like full electric is gaining traction despite its current range challenges. Technology is also not always about which is the "best" technology... like we saw in the VHS vs Betamax wars. There are numerous other factors at play in the background which means "best technology" and "costs" are but just two factors in a complex equation. Read the article at http://ift.tt/2gZ3q46
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