How Hydrogen Could Dethrone Batteries

 

In addition to being… well, lame... the tweet exemplifies the Tesla chairman’s hostility toward viable alternatives to his technology.

There’s reason to believe that Musk’s antipathy toward fuel cells is not rooted in a sincere belief that they don’t work — but rather in an anxiety that they circumvent many serious problems associated with battery-powered vehicles like the ones his company sells…

The Practical Problems With Battery Tech For Trucks

One pressing and as-of-yet unresolved set of problems with battery-powered vehicles is the extra weight added to larger vehicles by battery packs — and the extra trip time required to charge them.

If you want to increase the range of a battery-powered electric vehicle, you need to add more battery capacity — and thus more weight. 

 

This isn’t much of a problem for passenger cars, which are generally used to carry relatively small loads across short distances.

But semi trucks are often used to carry goods across the country — and their maximum weights are regulated. As a result, battery-powered trucks suffer from a tradeoff between range and carrying capacity. And that’s a tradeoff no shipping executive wants to deal with.

Battery technology also effectively forces truckers to choose between range and charging time — something many can ill-afford in the fast-paced, deadline-driven world of commercial trucking.
 

Studies have shown that stationary delays such as slow warehouse loading and unexpected stops are correlated with a higher incidence of truck accidents, as drivers feel compelled to “make up” lost time by driving faster and more recklessly.

With this in mind, the charging times associated with battery-powered trucks, which are generally more than 45 minutes with the best charging technology, and several hours under less-than-optimal conditions, could represent a real danger to truckers operating battery-powered rigs.

And that’s if you can even get the batteries. The well-known semiconductor chip and battery supply shortage has delayed the release of Tesla’s Semi truck, with the company now saying they will start to deliver in late 2021.

Not all of the problems associated with battery-powered vehicles are practical or trucking-related. No matter their size or use case, all battery-powered cars come with heavy mining-related environmental costs...

 

Are Battery-Powered Cars Really More Socially Responsible?

Ten to 33% of a vehicle-grade lithium-ion battery’s cathodes are made of cobalt, a metal whose extraction tends to involve energy-intensive blast mining and thus a high carbon footprint.

It’s no secret that the mining companies that produce cobalt and other “green metals” are some of the biggest polluters in the world.

The social impact of cobalt mining is also not pretty. More than 70% of the world’s cobalt is produced in the Democratic Republic of the Congo, a war-torn country in which local militias and warlords control many mines — and often staff them with child laborers.

Several battery-powered vehicle companies — including Tesla — have tried to ameliorate these problems by reducing the amount of cobalt used in their batteries. It’s tough for ESG-minded consumers to feel good driving an electric car when it’s dependent on forced child labor.

 

How Hydrogen Technology Could Dethrone Batteries

Battery-powered vehicle technology still hasn’t solved its weight, charging-time, or mining pollution problems.

With this in mind, it’s easy to understand why Musk lashed out against fuel cell technology — an alternative power source for zero-emission vehicles and buildings that doesn’t suffer from these problems.

Fuel cells are so light, efficient and durable that NASA frequently uses them as a power source for manned space expeditions, and they’re fueled by a hydrogen reservoir which can be refilled in seconds.

And Toyota is already delivering fuel cell electric trucks for pilot programs.

I have made money from the battery boom. I’ve also made money from the hydrogen boom.

I’ve always been agnostic to which clean technologies win. If there’s money to be made, I’ll invest in it.

That’s why this clean technology is so attractive.

I think it will make investors a ton of money no matter who comes out ahead in the battery versus fuel cell battle.

Because no matter what technology is powering the electric vehicles of the future… they’re going to need this technology — and the leading stock behind it — if they want to be able to feed that electricity into the grid when cars aren’t running.

Click here to see it in action.