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Hydrogen technology is unlikely to play a major role in sustainable road transport

Technical and economic developments in battery and fast-charging technologies could soon make fuel cell electric vehicles, which run on hydrogen, superfluous in road transport.

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Fig. 1: Freight segments and potential applications for zero emission trucks.
Fig. 2: Proposed megawatt charging station locations for trucks in Europe.

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Acknowledgements

This research was prepared as part of the projects eWayBW (grant number 16EM3167-1) and BOLD (grant number 16EM4011-1), funded by the German Federal Ministry for the Environment, Nature Conservation and Nuclear Safety. I further acknowledge funding by the European Union’s HORIZON 2020 projects PARIS REINFORCE (grant number 820846) and STORM (grant number 101006700). Discussions with D. Speth and M. Wietschel, among others, are gratefully acknowledged.

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Plötz, P. Hydrogen technology is unlikely to play a major role in sustainable road transport. Nat Electron 5, 8–10 (2022). https://doi.org/10.1038/s41928-021-00706-6

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