FUTURE PROOF
Startup car company? Try looking at the existing infrastructure first, reckons Paul Horrell
I’m standing at the Paris Motor Show looking at a brave new green car All I can think is I might be wrong here but too often the cleverest ideas turn out to be the dumbest
The car in question is branded NamX It’s a biggish electric crossover that’s been designed by Pininfarina Not a great start mind Of the few new cars at Paris most were also biggish electric crossovers from startups who’ve used the otherwise underemployed Italian carrozzeria So far then so unexeptional even if the NamX looks more distinctive than those others from Wey Vinfast BYD et cetera
The real NamX difference is that it’s powered by electricity from a fuel cell rather than a battery And what’s even more different is that beyond the main fuel tank there’s also a space for smaller removable capsules So you don’t need a conventional hydrogen filling station they’re far apart and expensive to build because you can have the capsules refilled with green hydrogen delivered to home Then just swap them out like the butane cartridge on your camping stove Or you can buy them at roadside pickup points Sound like your sort of car? You can preorder now online All major credit and debit cards accepted
“UNTIL WE HAVE UNLIMITED ELECTRICITY, WE NEED TO USE IT AS SPARINGLY AS WE CAN”
It’s so clever Environmental cost of battery manufacture? Solved! Recharging times? Solved! Hydrogen availability? Solved! CO emissions from petrol? Solved!
Yet so dumb First is now the time to try another form of infrastructure? Electricity is on every street in every lamppost and building Yet still there isn’t enough investment to make charge spots by spurring off those wires Will we really get over the chicken and egg threshold of providing hydrogen capsule swap points even if the capsules are opensource standardised?
Worse than that NamX ignores the efficiency disadvantage of hydrogen Basically when you put a unit of electricity into producing green hydrogen you can drive a fuel cell car a mile Put that same unit directly into an EV’s battery and you can drive three miles Until we have unlimited electricity don’t see that any time soon we need to use it as sparingly as we can
That doesn’t mean hydrogen has no place It’s expensive to transmit electricity over long distances So when the world starts generating lots of low cost renewable energy in remote places wind in the tundra solar in the deserts then it’s a good idea to use this to produce green hydrogen and transport it to where the fuel cell vehicles are But frankly battery cars work well enough hydrogen would be better used in trucks aircraft or home heating Or we could use that remotely generated electricity to synthesise renewable ‘petrol’ for our existing cars
So NamX is launching a new car that’s expensive has no brand awareness unproven technology no existing infrastructure and a battle against the relentless inefficiency logic of its chosen fuel I wish it success I predict failure
TG’s eco-conscious megabrain, Paul Horrell, is one of the world’s most respected and experienced car writers. Has attended every significant car launch since the Model T