Jaguar may be fully invested in the development of electric vehicles, but that doesn’t mean it’s embracing other low-emissions vehicles. Jaguar Land Rover technical director Wolfgang Ziebart made that point very clear at the Los Angeles Auto Show when he outright dismissed hydrogen-powered fuel cell vehicles. In his own words, Ziebart called FCVs “complete nonsense,” in large part because of their poor efficiency relative to battery electric vehicles.
At the heart of Ziebart’s disdain for FCVs is the well-to-wheel relationship from the energy source to the vehicle. According to Jaguar’s point man in the development of the I-Pace EV SUV, the whole process of producing hydrogen and them compressing and cooling them for use in a fuel cell vehicle is a lot less efficient compared to outrightly using electric energy. “You “You end up with a well to wheel efficiency of roughly 30 percent for hydrogen, as opposed to more or less well to wheel 70 percent efficiency for a battery electric vehicle,” Ziebart explained. “So the efficiency of putting the electric energy directly into a battery is about twice as high as the efficiency of producing and using hydrogen.”
To be fair, Ziebart did concede that there’s a place for hydrogen-powered vehicles if somebody finds a way to improve the whole process of improving the infrastructure for hydrogen production, including producing and distributing the energy without compromising its efficiency. Electric energy just makes more sense at this point, and for what it’s worth, Ziebart’s comments is all part of continued discussions among people within the industry of the short- and long-term benefits of fuel cell technology.
At the very least, Ziebart’s position on the issue is backed by a recent study by scientists at Stanford University and the Technical University of Munich that was published in the journal Energy. According to the study, battery electric vehicles offer a more affordable way to reduce carbon dioxide emissions than cars powered by hydrogen, citing lower costs and higher energy efficiency as the main reasons for the advantage.
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