Comparison of Electric Vehicles and Hydrogen Fuel Cell Vehicles

Abstract

In recent years, as carbon emissions continue to rise and the extent of global warming becomes wider, new energy vehicles have gradually grown into people’s attention. Electric vehicles and hydrogen fuel cell vehicles with zero tailpipe emission become the solution. This paper describes the structural features and safety design of both HFCVs and EVs, and compares the carbon emissions, charging infrastructure, energy efficiency, and safety differences between them. The results show that EVs and HFCVs are better than traditional vehicles in terms of carbon emissions and safety, and EVs have more obvious emission reductions. EVs are developing faster than hydrogen energy vehicles in terms of charging infrastructure. HFCV’s efficiency is lower than that of EV. Regarding safety, both of them are better than traditional vehicles, but EVs are more likely to heat up and catch fire due to battery structure problems. Based on the current research, this paper believes that the EV technology and supporting facilities are more complete, the cost is lower, and the carbon emission reduction is more effective. After the reform of energy grid composition in the future and more investment into new energy vehicles development, EVs’ future is promising. This paper also hopes that a better way of hydrogen energy production is invented in the future, so as to accelerate the development of hydrogen energy vehicles.