by Nada Welker | Sep 23, 2024 | Alternative Drives, Automotive Industry, Electrification, Hydrogen
We at Magility GmbH are firmly convinced that hydrogen does not represent a viable solution for heavy-duty transport. While some experts, including most recently VDA President Hildegard Müller at the IAA Transportation, still view hydrogen as one of the promising pathways to decarbonizing truck fleets, we, after extensive analysis and practical experience – including multiple calculation scenarios and technology studies for the truck fleets of our logistics sector clients – consider this option inefficient and unrealistic. Instead, we are committed to battery-electric truck solutions (BET solutions), which we see as the practical and future-proof path for energy transformation in heavy-duty transport. As early as 2021, our CEO, Dr. Michael Müller, gave interviews on the challenges of hydrogen technologies, demonstrating Magility GmbH’s in-depth engagement with the topic.
The Challenges of Hydrogen
High Costs – We see cost structures as one of the biggest hurdles for hydrogen in heavy-duty transport.
- Production: The production of green hydrogen, which is essential to meet climate targets, is extremely energy-intensive. Since the electricity required for electrolysis comes from renewable energy sources, the production of hydrogen is significantly more expensive than the direct use of electricity in batteries.
- Infrastructure: Building a comprehensive hydrogen infrastructure, including refueling stations and pipelines, involves immense costs. The investments required to create a functioning supply chain are disproportionate to the already existing charging infrastructure for battery-electric vehicles, which continues to be expanded.
- Vehicle Acquisition: Fuel cell vehicles are currently significantly more expensive to purchase than battery-electric trucks. The high acquisition costs and the complicated technology result in a clear disadvantage compared to the increasingly efficient BET (battery electric truck) solutions.
Low Efficiency – For us, the efficiency of hydrogen technologies remains another obstacle.
- Energy Losses During the conversion of electricity into hydrogen and the subsequent reconversion into electrical energy via fuel cells, a large portion of energy is lost. This means that significantly more electricity is required to generate the same amount of energy than with the direct use of batteries.
- Overall Efficiency Battery-electric trucks have a much higher efficiency due to their direct drive with electricity. This makes them a better choice for the future of heavy-duty transport, both from an ecological and economical perspective.
The Advantages of BET Solutions
At Magility, we focus on the continuous improvement of battery technology as the key to decarbonizing heavy-duty transport. The advantages of BET solutions are clear!
Cost Efficiency
- Decreasing Costs: Due to mass production and technological advancements, battery prices are continuously decreasing. Economies of scale are leading to a significant reduction in costs for both vehicles and infrastructure.
- Fast Charging Times: Fast charging systems are developing rapidly, and charging times for battery-electric trucks are becoming shorter and shorter. This progress increasingly debunks the argument that electric trucks are impractical due to long charging times.
Technological Maturity
- Proven Technology: Batteries have already proven themselves in many areas of mobility, from cars to buses to light commercial vehicles. The technological maturity and continuous development make battery-electric trucks a reliable option for fleet operators.
- Multiple Uses: After their use in vehicles, batteries can be used for stationary energy storage. This extends their lifespan and improves their economic sustainability.
Infrastructure Expansion
- Existing Power Grid: Unlike the complex hydrogen infrastructure, there is already a well-established power grid. The expansion of the charging infrastructure for electric vehicles is progressing rapidly worldwide, and more and more charging stations are becoming available. With intelligent load management and the use of renewable energies, the power grid can be operated in a stable and sustainable manner.
Conclusion: E-Mobility as a Viable Solution
At Magility, we see hydrogen in heavy-duty transport as an inefficient and cost-intensive solution that does not meet the requirements of this sector. The high costs, low efficiency, and underdeveloped infrastructure are barriers that cannot be overcome in the foreseeable future. In contrast, E-solutions offer a mature, efficient, and economically sustainable way to drive the energy transition in heavy-duty transport. With the continuous development of battery technology and the rapid expansion of charging infrastructure, we see battery-electric mobility as the key to decarbonizing heavy-duty transport.
“Hydrogen remains an illusion for us – battery-electric trucks, on the other hand, represent a realistic and achievable future vision.” – Jürgen Schenk, Senior Advisor, Magility GmbH
Our experts are happy to assist you in mastering the energy transformation in the mobility sector successfully. We support you with professional and holistic planning of your procurement scenarios through dynamic cost analyses. For the conversion and optimization of your fleets, we develop customized decision matrices based on typical usage periods, which will efficiently ease your management efforts.
by Julia Riemer | Jul 25, 2022 | Automotive Industry, Future Trends, Hydrogen, Market development & Trends
In recent years, hydrogen technology has moved to the forefront of the environmental debate: it is expected to help achieve the increasingly stringent climate protection targets and, in particular, the low emissions targets for the transport sector. This is precisely why topics such as hydrogen law and regulation are becoming increasingly important in the automotive sector.
Hydrogen in the transport sector – Focus on the automotive industry
Although our article focuses primarily on the automotive sector, it should be mentioned that breakthroughs in hydrogen technology applications are also being made in other transportation sectors. Trains are now using so-called “hydrails” technology. The world’s first commercial hydrogen-powered passenger train in Germany, the Coradia iLint, was produced by French rail manufacturer Alstom in 2016. In Asia, East Japan Railway announced in late 2019 that it is investing four billion yen in the development of a two-car hydrogen train. In addition, in the U.S., Swiss rail manufacturer Stadler received an order from the San Bernardino County Transportation Authority in November 2019 to deliver the first hydrogen-powered train. The UK is also catching up, introducing the “Hydroflex” in 2020, the UK’s first hydrogen-powered train.
In the automotive sector, innovative hydrogen technology is pioneering the most energy-efficient alternative energy source to internal combustion engines needed to reduce greenhouse gas emissions by 60 to 80 percent by 2050, according to the European Strategic Energy Technology Plan.
Major automakers in the EU and around the world are preparing for hydrogen propulsion and are already planning and implementing significant investments in this innovative propulsion technology of the future in automotive manufacturing, particularly in hydrogen-based fuel cell electric vehicles, or FCEVs.
The framework for hydrogen law is changing: An overview
- Efficient and cost-effective implementation of hydrogen and fuel cell technologies requires appropriate laws, regulations, standards and procedures.
- Almost all relevant regulations for hydrogen and fuel cells are currently based on European regulations (directives or ordinances). These are and must be further developed and adapted.
- Similarly, a large proportion of the standards applied today are based on international regulations.
- Outside Europe, Japan, Korea, China and the USA in particular are increasingly standing out as pioneers in the development and market launch of hydrogen (H₂) and fuel cells.
- The further development of international regulations and standards will be increasingly influenced by technology and market developments outside Europe.
- It is therefore important that German and European interests continue to be taken into account and that RCS activities (RCS = Regulations, Codes and Standards) are followed by German players in international bodies.
- Currently, German expert representation in international H₂-RCS bodies is declining – in stark contrast to France, Japan and the USA.
- This is worrying, as greater representation of German experts in all relevant European and international standardization bodies is essential in order to meet the requirements of the EU’s New Legislative Framework (NLF) concept, so that standards suitable for Europe (ISO, IEC, CEN – Comité Européen de Normalisation, CENELEC – Comité Européen de Normalisation Électrotechnique) can in turn be referred to.
- This effort will be borne primarily by industry, even if it involves regulatory work or support, which is not the primary task of private actors.
- In the past, Germany was able to conduct approval procedures for new technologies by analogy, which is now less and less possible due to the NLF. To improve the internal market for goods and strengthen the conditions for placing a wide range of products on the EU market, the new NLF legal framework was adopted in 2008. It is a package of measures designed to improve market surveillance and enhance the quality of conformity assessment.
- Complicating matters further, China is developing many H₂- and FC-specific standards on a national basis, some of which come into force directly (GB standards), and China is stepping up its participation in international standardization.
- By participating in RCS panels, it is possible to some extent to help shape the future technology and its suitability for one’s needs. Not participating is tantamount to leaving this sphere of influence to other international competitors.
EU framework conditions for hydrogen applications in the automotive sector
To shape the transition to a green energy strategy, the European Commission has launched a Hydrogen Strategy for Europe in 2020, to be further implemented by the European Alliance for Clean Hydrogen. Within this framework, the European Commission aims to introduce common standards, terminology and further certification to make renewable or low-carbon hydrogen more competitive and facilitate its use as an alternative fuel resource.
The current EU regulatory framework provides flexibility in relation to the introduction of hydrogen technology in the automotive sector (e.g. environmental regulations on the greenhouse gas intensity of hydrogen, technical requirements for refueling stations) with limited regulations that have only an indirect impact.
Impact of the EU framework beyond the EU
At the international level, the United Nations Economic Commission for Europe (“UNECE”) is developing harmonized regulatory requirements that serve as the basis for national regulatory standards for hydrogen vehicles and, in particular, for the safety of FCEVs in North America (led by the United States), Japan, Korea and the European Union. UNECE Regulation No. 134, establishing requirements for the approval of motor vehicles and their components with regard to the safety-related performance of hydrogen-powered vehicles, is currently in force and is recognized as equivalent to the corresponding separate directives or separate regulations of the EU.
Regulatory gaps slow down rapid implementation
Many of the barriers to hydrogen deployment are due to regulatory gaps caused by a lack of harmonization of regulations and concepts or an unintended mismatch between regulations adopted at the national level, rather than high legal and regulatory barriers at the EU level. A major problem is the lack of standardization of the refueling process for heavy freight transport, the target sector for hydrogen technology. Without a harmonized framework for the refueling procedure, countries run the risk of incurring additional costs for retrofitting. To promote and secure expansion and funding in the hydrogen sector, member states should develop a harmonized refueling regulation.
Nevertheless, steady progress through numerous initiatives
Nevertheless, steady progress is being observed worldwide, in particular through the so-called “Fit for 55” legislative package in the EU and through the introduction of automotive-specific or clean air legislation in other countries. This is also because countries are taking initiatives to change their national policies with the aim of decarbonizing vehicle transport, with several countries taking concrete steps to invest in and develop hydrogen-based vehicles in public and private transport (including heavy road vehicles).
magility’s view on H2 rules and regulations
There is no doubt that FCEVs are already changing the automotive landscape, and hydrogen-based technology is no longer a novelty for the future, but rather a current reality that stakeholders must adapt to. Although the road ahead will present financial, regulatory and technical challenges, hydrogen technology is an important alternative energy source in the automotive sector. The industry must adapt to the ever-changing economic and environmental realities.
Only with the right regulations it is possible to build a new infrastructure that forms the basis for new business models. In particular, sustainable mobility, the expansion of renewable energies and efforts to reduce greenhouse gas emissions will be key factors influencing the implementation of hydrogen projects. Political decision-makers must create the necessary regulations for hydrogen production, infrastructure and applications so that the envisaged H2 business models can be successful. Without these regulations, the H2 initiative will fail. You can find more about our position in our paper Hydrogen – Just a Part of the Big Picture Energy Transition, Business and “Climate Action Failure”.
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by Nada Welker | Nov 22, 2021 | Hydrogen
Hydrogen as a driver of innovation in the Stuttgart Metropolitan Region
At our 5th network meeting “Future Business Digital Networks”, which we at magility organised together with VP Bank and oeconos, entrepreneurs from all over Baden- Württemberg came together again this year to discuss the megatrend of neo-ecology and in particular the currently very hyped topic of “hydrogen”.
The speakers
Dr. Thomas Gitzel, Chief Economist of the VP Bank Group, gave an insight into the current economic situation and, using the example of pipelines from Russia, underlined the importance of global dependencies and their challenges among others, for Germany in the area of gas.
Dr. René Schellenberger introduced the world of neo-ecology with his keynote speech. He showed how ecological values are creating a new global identity and made it clear how the relationship between humans, nature and technology will change in the future and how completely new relationships will result from this.
Jan Dietz, CEO of oeconos GmbH, then moved on to the kind of change that this will bring for innovations in small and medium-sized enterprises and pragmatically showed what neo-ecology means for companies and how it will affect products, processes and business models. The return to old values, especially in production processes, will play a major role.
Prof. Dr. Gerhard Reiff, Chairman of the Board of KST Motorenversuch GmbH & Co. KG, made it clear that hydrogen will be an important building block for achieving the climate targets, but that sufficient availability, especially of green hydrogen, will still be a challenge for many years to come.
The panel discussion
Dr. Michael Müller, CEO of Magility GmbH, and Jürgen Schenk, Senior Executive Advisor of Magility GmbH, also expressed this point of view and elaborated on it in the subsequent panel discussion. In order for hydrogen to establish itself as a sustainable and easily accessible energy carrier, it is necessary to consider various fields: Production, logistics and distribution through to applications. The two magility experts discussed with the audience and the speakers which H2 applications will sustainably establish themselves on the market.
Cornelia Frey, moderator of the Stuttgart Stock Exchange, skilfully led the interactive panel discussion. She contributed important suggestions and encouraged interactive discussion with the audience. One main point was the potential that hydrogen can bring for new business models in the coming years.
Hydrogen as a driver of innovation?
Jules Verne wrote in the book “The Mysterious Island” already in 1874:
“Water is the coal of the future. The energy of tomorrow is water that has been decomposed by electric current. The elements of water thus decomposed, hydrogen and oxygen, will secure the earth’s energy supply for the unforeseeable future.”
H2 is one of the options for phasing out fossil fuels quickly and sustainably. H2, especially in its green variant, offers considerable potential for achieving climate protection goals. The modification of conventional to climate-neutral business models requires a high degree of competence and experience. The biggest challenge for companies is to find the optimal mix between climate neutrality and business success. Only when the strength of hydrogen is considered in a cross-sectoral manner for transport, power generation, heat and industry green hydrogen is able to unfold its full potential in a sustainable energy system and a viable concept can emerge.
Magility GmbH and hydrogen – position paper
We at magility see ourselves as a system integrator for hydrogen projects, especially in the fields of industry, real estate, individual mobility, transport and energy supply for the German market. We model the individual environment of our customers and can calculate individual optimisations from the available energy balances and applications. From this, we create suitable and scalable solutions that can also be expanded and adapted over time. In our new position paper “Hydrogen – just one part of the big picture Energy transition, companies and “Climate Action Failure”, we at magility take a position on the trend topic of hydrogen and show in which fields of application we see the greatest potential.
Effects of the Neoecology Megatrend
Sustainable structures are becoming the new defining economic factor of our time. The megatrend neoecology will shape the future and have a particular impact on the way companies think and act. The economic system and the market will change permanently. As a result, companies are not only faced with the challenge of orienting themselves towards the future through the digital transformation and the associated innovations and new business areas, but the 2020s will also be decisively shaped by sustainability issues that concern every entrepreneur.
Interview with Dr. Michael Müller
For further information, please read the interview with our CEO Dr. Michael Müller published by the Stuttgarter Börse.
Please feel free to contact us.
by Nada Welker | Nov 2, 2020 | Alternative Drives, Automotive Industry, Hydrogen, New Mobility
While alchemists are still unsuccessfully searching for the Philosopher’s Stone, modern researchers believe they have found a counterpart to the preservation of an environment worth living in: Hydrogen. It remains when oxygen is separated from water by a current based electrolysis process. And it seems to be a real jack-of-all-trades because it can be used directly as an energy source, as a storage source for wind energy, for example, or converted into gas and synthetic fuel. If the electricity for the electrolysis process also comes exclusively from renewable energies, it is given the most valuable seal of approval and is henceforth called green hydrogen, because the entire production process is completely CO2-free.
Fuel Cells Are Very Popular
The English chemist and physicist Henry Cavendish certainly had no idea how relevant the hydrogen he discovered in 1766 will be one day. An impression of this was recently given by the US truck manufacturer Nikola, when they went public at the beginning of June without any turnover, but with great ambitions. Their goal: to replace Tesla. After a merger with VectoIQ, an expert company for the Future of Mobility, the value of Nikola’s share rose by over 60 percent. The start-up company, founded in 2015, plans to put hydrogen-powered commercial vehicles, Hydrogen Trucks, on the road in 2023 with its “Nikola Two” model. In its Ulm plant until end of 2021 Iveco plans to produce the battery operated“ Nikola Tre”, a model that is based on the IVECO S-WAY vehicle. Up to 35,000 trucks per year are to be built by the Ulm-based company Iveco.
Daimler Chooses Volvo to Follow Green Energy Paths
The development costs for hydrogen power units are currently still high. For this reason, Daimler has joined forces with Volvo, its strongest competitor in the truck sector, and plans to set up a joint venture with a share of 0.6 billion Euros each to accelerate the development of hydrogen trucks. The money will flow from Volvo. In return, Daimler will concentrate all its previous activities in the development of fuel cells on trucks and will combine them there. According to Daimler, the goal is “the series-ready development, production and marketing of fuel cell systems for use in heavy commercial vehicles” for long-distance traffic. Until then, Daimler wants to replace conventional Diesel emergency power generators in safety-relevant facilities such as computer centres by stationary power generation systems with CO2-neutral fuel cells. To this end, the Group plans to enter into an additional cooperation with Rolls-Royce Power Systems by the end of the year and to earn money with hydrogen in stationary use faster than it is possible by the fuel cell development for vehicles.
The Infrastructure Must Grow
The quick-change artist hydrogen can be transported and stored in both liquid and gaseous form. According to a report by the Energy and Climate Protection Foundation, fuel cell passenger cars “can be refueled with energy for a range of 500 to 700 kilometers in just three minutes”. A joint venture founded in 2015 by Air Liquide, Daimler, Linde, OMV, Shell and Total, which also includes BMW, Honda, Hyundai, Toyota and Volkswagen as associated partners, ensures a well-developed network of filling stations in conurbations and on the motorways connecting them. The 100 hydrogen stations planned nationwide for 2020 are easy to find with a fuel card and smartphone app and are mostly integrated into conventional filling stations. This is what is needed to refuel hydrogen trucks.
In contrast, the MKS analysis (MKS -Teilstudie) by the Federal Ministry of Transport and Digital Infrastructure sees “critical development obstacles, research needs and market potential” in the infrastructural supply of trucks. Technical findings from the passenger car sector should not be overestimated due to the different requirements of trucks. According to the study, the low range is a possible obstacle to the use of fuel cells in trucks. For example, a 40-ton truck would only be able to cover 400 kilometers, whereas a conventionally refueled truck with the same weight and tank volume would be able to cover up to 2500 kilometers. The further expansion of the technology depends heavily on demand and costs.
Favourable Winds also Advance Hydrogen Trucks
As the Handelsblatt reports, the analysis of the US bank Morgan Stanley shows a promising trend. According to this analysis, the costs for wind and solar energy are falling rapidly and could lead to falling prices for the so-called Power-to-X technology (PtX) as well. In terms of the forms of energy, PtX means the storage and conversion of electricity, at best from renewable energies such as hydropower, wind energy and solar energy, into
the secondary products gas (PtG), liquid (PtL) or heat (PtH). PtL is used to produce e.g. E-Fuels, so-called synthetic fuels. According to the German Energy Agency (DENA), Germany currently leads the way in power-to-gas (PtG) technology. According to the Federal Government’s National Hydrogen Strategy, this should remain so in the future.
However, the majority of the demand for hydrogen could not be met exclusively by local production of green hydrogen, but had to be imported to a large extent. For this reason, Germany is planning international cooperation and partnerships. We at magility have been networking with important players in the hydrogen market from industrial partners to local authorities from an early stage. The aim is to network different players for the important topic of H2, to push forward projects together and to facilitate cooperation. If you would like to become part of our hydrogen network, please send an e-mail to our CMO nada.welker@magility.com. She will be happy to include give you more information.
by Nada Welker | Sep 29, 2020 | Alternative Drives, Automotive Industry, Hydrogen, New Mobility
Since the beginning of 2020, Covid19, currently the most famous virus in the world and the search for the vaccine, has taken pole position in the news. At the same time, topics that have been on the minds of scientists and politicians for years are once again increasingly in the spotlight in the media and social networks. For example, the topic of mobility and alternative drives has been posing an equally great challenge to science and our everyday lives for years, because mobility is inevitably linked to sustainability and environmental awareness and, not least, to our health and life. If the climate protection goals are not achieved, this will have lasting negative effects on our environment and our well-being. In this context, many measures must be combined into an overall strategy. One of these are alternative fuels and in particular hydrogen drives, which we at magility take a closer look at in the current article.
Alternative Drives
It is important to find alternative fuels for vehicles which are in no way inferior to fossil fuels from petroleum such as petrol, diesel or paraffin and which, in the best case, are also climate-neutral. After all, there are already around 1.3 billion motor vehicles on the road worldwide today.
Hydrogen and E-Fuels are Ahead
According to ADAC forecasts, hydrogen and synthetic fuels – so-called e-fuels – are the long-term winners, as they appear to have sufficient capacity to store energy. They also generate synergy effects in the context of sector linkage, i.e. the networking of electricity, heat and transport. And they can be designed with a high knock resistance. As a result, engines can be more highly compressed and their efficiency increased. The apparent dream team consists of regeneratively gained electricity and CO2 from the air. Their combination would produce a virtual CO2-neutral fuel, which would dissolve a large part of our concerns about a livable environment in water or air. However, this would come at the price of a long production chain and very high energy loss.
Too Little Sustainability in Electric Cars
E-fuels are also at the top of the priority list for sports car manufacturer Porsche. For Michael Steiner, the board member in charge of development, the combustion engine will continue to set the tone on the roads worldwide. Although Porsche has already brought a fully electric vehicle onto the market with the Taycan model and also offers a hybrid version, Steiner does not see much long-term potential for this technology. Electric mobility is pursuing the goal of sustainability too slowly. After all, Porsche still wants to put half of its sold vehicles on the streets by 2025, where they will stay for quite a while, as they are driven by their owners for a very long time. At the same time, however, the VW subsidiary also wants to push the specification of e-fuels in order to have a say in the high-performance sector of vehicle engines. And above all, technical problems like those once experienced with the introduction of E10 should not occur again.
Hydrogen as a Never-Ending Source
Synthetic fuels are now produced on the basis of hydrogen, because hydrogen is almost infinitely available in nature and can be produced climate-neutrally. This is different from experiments with renewable raw materials such as rapeseed, corn or even wheat and palm oil. What reads like a list of ingredients for vegan cooking had striking disadvantages when it came to mixing them into fuels: Monocultures developed, and in South America, primeval forests had to give way to palm oil plantations. In the case of Generation 2 biogas/CNG, the “plate-tank discussion” is no longer relevant, as plant residues such as straw are used. Nevertheless, the hydrogen variant has great potential.
The hydrogen produced in the Power-to-X (PtX) process is first converted to methane with the help of CO2, which gave this step the term Power-to-Gas (PtG). Finally, the whole thing can be liquefied in a third process step. Usually via the Fischer-Tropsch process, the methane is converted into a longer-chain hydrocarbon, leading to the term power-to-liquid (PtL).
Costs Remain the Same
For both manufacturers and consumers, there is still one annoying drawback: despite its suitability for climate control, electricity for PtX is still defined as part of conventional power consumption. This means that it has to be paid for at 16 cents or, in other words, at 55% of the electricity price.
Hydrogen filling stations are still in short supply
Porsche also considers the expansion of a network of filling stations for electric cars to be costly and time-consuming. However, fuel cell cars are not yet making much progress, because hydrogen filling stations are still lacking.
According to the ADAC, there are only 134 of them in Europe. After all, the lion’s share is to be found in Germany with 84 stations. By the end of 2021 another 46 are to be added. If you cross the border into France or Austria, you should take a bicycle or good hiking boots with you as a precaution, because both countries currently offer only five hydrogen filling stations each. It will be even more difficult in Belgium with only two filling stations. Switzerland has three and the Netherlands only four hydrogen filling stations.
These Alternative Drives are Currently Available
Fuel Cell Cars
A fuel cell, which is fed from a hydrogen tank, generates the electricity for propulsion while driving by reversing the electrolysis. A small battery serves as an intermediate storage and covers the demand during peak loads such as acceleration.
Hyundai has its Nexo model on the market as standard, while Toyota makes the Mirai model as standard. Mercedes offers the GLC F-Cell.
Safety is guaranteed by Regulation (EC) No 79/2008. The non-toxic, invisible and volatile hydrogen is also subject to European safety standards for crash tests.
Electric Drive
The electricity comes from the socket and, with the help of a large battery in the vehicle, currently provides a range of around 300 kilometers. The vehicles are considered to be very safe, except if, for example, an accident causes the technical protective measures to become deformed and, in the worst case, start to burn. Electric drives are currently mainly used in industrial vehicles, city vehicles and sports cars.
E-Fuels
Synthetic fuels, so-called e-fuels, are produced from CO2 and hydrogen using renewable energy. They are still at the stage of intensive research. The great hope for this alternative drive lies in its climate neutrality and the chance to continue using combustion engines. However, the production chain from wind orsun to electricity, from electricity to hydrogen and from hydrogen using CO2 to e-fuels is very long and lossy.
Hybrid
A hybrid combines different drive principles or energy sources, for example an electric drive with petrol or diesel. In doing so, it uses the advantages of diesel, petrol or fuel cells and electricity. The advantage of this technology is potentially lower fuel consumption and therefore lower emissions. The disadvantages are the high recycling costs for the battery packs, a complex control system, the high weight and the double energy storage required.
LPG
A mixture of propane and butane liquefied under pressure, known as Liquefied Petroleum Gas (LPG), provides propulsion and is a source of pleasure for the consumer: only around half the cost of conventional fuels are to be paid. To ensure protection against leaks in the tank, fragrances are added to the odourless gas, so that any leaking gas can be detected. Gas-powered vehicles are considered safe.
Natural Gas
Natural gas is one of the combustible organic substances. It consists of 85% methane and up to 10% nitrogen and carbon dioxide. For passenger cars, compressed natural gas is mainly used, with CNG being the abbreviation for Compressed Natural Gas. The fuel and vehicles are considered safe.
Alternative Drives – magility Outlook for Future Mobility
It remains to be seen which alternative drives and fuels will establish themselves on the market in the long term. According to our magility experts, there will not be “the one” right drive technology in the future. Demand, usage behaviour and the expansion of the infrastructure will play a decisive role in determining which drive technologies will prevail, for what purpose and in which location. For the mobility of the future, a mix of different drives and fuels seems to be most likely. One conceivable option would be an electric motor with various energy carriers or storage systems such as hydrogen/fuel cells and batteries.
Feel free to contact us if you have further questions about drive technologies, alternative fuels or the mobility of the future in general. We also invite you to our hydrogen network. If you want to be part of it feel free to write an email to our CMO nada.welker@magility.com.
The alternative drives should also be thoroughly tested. For example, the independent development service provider and test facility operator KST Motorenversuch GmbH provides dynamic e-drive test benches for automobile manufacturers.
Please feel free to contact us if you have further questions about drive technologies, new fuels or future mobility in general. We would also be pleased to include you in our hydrogen network. Please send an e-mail to our CMO nada.welker@magility.com.
