Race to fuel green vehicles ignites as batteries and hydrogen collide

Debate rages over most effective way to power cars and buses

electric battery Gigafactory
The Tesla electric battery Gigafactory in Australia Credit:  AFP

A video by the Alliance for American Manufacturing leaves little doubt over the alleged dangers of battery-powered public transport. “At first glance, it seems too good to be true. A Chinese company called Build Your Dreams [BYD] decides to assemble electric buses in America. And some US cities begin to purchase these buses as part of a move towards clean energy,” the report from last autumn says. “But BYD is just another ploy by China to dominate the global auto industry.”

The video says BYD’s “ties to China’s authoritarian government run deep”. And “members of the corporate leadership have ties to the government or communist party”, it claims.

BYD, whose overseas investors include Warren Buffett, is one of the world’s biggest electric vehicle battery makers. It declined to comment on the video’s claims. China does dominate the production of batteries, however, controlling more than 55pc of the global market.

With Britain pledging to be carbon net zero by 2050, in the transport sector questions are being raised about whether vehicles powered by Chinese batteries are the right answer to the climate crisis. There is an alternative. Billionaire industrialist Lord Bamford has backed a campaign for Britain to invest in hydrogen-powered vehicles.

The JCB chairman says: “I am conscious that there seems to be a group-think that the answer is batteries. My son Jo is very involved in talking about hydrogen to almost anybody that will listen. He feels passionately that as a country, we are missing out. And I feel we are.”

Chairman Sir Anthony Bamford (left) and his son Joe Bamford (right).
JCB Chairman Sir Anthony Bamford (left) and his son Joe Bamford (right). Credit: David Marsden/PAGE ONE

Hydrogen power vehicles ought to be in the limelight. The Tokyo 2020 Olympics, the opening ceremony of which was scheduled to take place last Tuesday, was dubbed “the hydrogen Games”. Officials wanted the Games to leave “a hydrogen society” as a legacy.

And Japan is not alone. South Korea is to invest $95bn (£75bn) to support 200,000 hydrogen vehicles.

Meanwhile, the EU is ramping up investment. “Hydrogen is a vital missing piece of the puzzle to help us reach this deeper decarbonisation,” Kadri Simson, the EU’s energy commissioner, said earlier this month.

Steven Meersman is a director at battery firm Zenobe Energy. He says: “We can all agree that zero-emissions vehicles, whether they are hydrogen or electric, are better than diesel…

“[But] some of the concerns about electric are a bit far-fetched. It is true that China invested in this technology much earlier than the West and as a result has built up a dominant position. But throwing in the towel and saying ‘that’s it then, China’s going to control the battery industry so let’s not use any batteries’, that’s tossing the baby out with the bath water.”

Europe is catching up. Estimates show the continent has 19pc of global lithium-ion battery capacity – though considerably behind China’s more than 55pc market share. Stockholm-headquartered Northvolt, which has contracts with Volkswagen and BMW, is planning to rival the likes of Tesla by building “gigafactories”. Its second site is planned for Lower Saxony to feed Germany’s all-important car market.

“Other than the sites we are already working from or have earmarked, we know we will need to build at least two more factories,” says Jesper Wigardt, Northvolt’s vice-president. It remains to be seen whether one of these two sites will be in the UK. “Northvolt’s ambition is to take 25pc of the European battery-making market by 2030. The million-dollar question is whether the [rest of the] market for battery production in Europe will be run by local businesses or end up being akin to a series of South Korean and Chinese satellite factories.”

Another firm, Britishvolt, last month announced the location of the UK’s first gigafactory: St Athan, a Welsh town where Aston Martin also has a plant. Orral Nadjari, its co-founder, says building work is due to begin in the second quarter of next year. That will follow a debut on the London Stock Exchange. The company needs to raise around £2.6bn to deliver a 30 gigawatt factory, which it hopes to have fully up and running by 2027.

“We have managed to secure enough funding to get us all the way through to quarter one, quarter two next year, so we will be ready to put spades in the ground. We will also be listed by then and the capital markets will be very keen on this project. I am currently discussing [the float] with several different investment banks.”

Isobel Sheldon, Britishvolt’s strategy chief, admits the “battery cell brigade and the fuel cell brigade have been at loggerheads”, but insists the technologies are “complementary”.

“The problem with fuel cells is producing the fuel,” she adds. Around three quarters of the energy is lost in production with hydrogen because the gas has to be compressed. Less than 25pc of the energy is lost in the production of electric batteries, Sheldon explains.

“The commonly held view within government is that for long-haul road transport, the only sustainable solution for that is to go [hydrogen] fuel cell. [But] that could be a little bit off in terms of timing. We’re talking 10 to 15 years to get it rolling out in any meaningful way. We have an environmental problem that we have got to solve now. And the only way we can do that is to take that early advantage that batteries give us.”

Hydrogen fuel cell
Electrolyser units which create the hydrogen to power fuel-cell cars

National Express was the first operator to commit to zero emissions, in bus by 2030 and in coach by 2035.

Tom Stables, managing director for the UK and Germany, says: “We are currently introducing electric buses into service and will soon be adding hydrogen fuel cell powered vehicles.

“We are keeping our options open. Our ambition is deliberately to be zero emission, not fully electric or exclusively hydrogen.”

The biggest name in green transportation is not sitting on the fence. Tesla’s Elon Musk has attacked fuel cell technology as “staggeringly dumb” and “mind-bogglingly stupid”.

Elon Musk
Elon Musk has attacked fuel cell technology as “staggeringly dumb” and “mind-bogglingly stupid”. Credit: Saul Martinez/Getty Images North America

Labelling them “fool cells”, the entrepreneur once told shareholders “success is simply not possible”. Musk has benefited from strong demand for Tesla vehicles in China and billions in subsidies for a factory in Shanghai.

As east-west tensions rise and hydrogen advocates find a more receptive political audience, the billionaire and Beijing may find his predictions tested.

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