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Hydrogen tap in Berlin: Many Germans apparently find the idea of continuing to fill a tank for driving a car attractive
Photo: Sean Gallup / Getty Images
Car manufacturers in Europe are increasingly selling electric cars. Above all, however, they are selling vehicles with rechargeable batteries - and hardly any vehicles with fuel cells that fill up with hydrogen.
In Germany, almost every ninth new car was recently powered by batteries; a total of around one million e-cars (including plug-in hybrids) are registered in Germany.
Hydrogen cars, on the other hand, are still in an extremely small niche.
Their number is not shown separately in the official statistics.
In October 2020, SPIEGEL identified 507 registered vehicles.
However, many Germans continue to hope for the breakthrough of hydrogen propulsion in cars. In a survey by the opinion research institute Civey for SPIEGEL, 39 percent of those questioned were in favor of urgent government funding for fuel cell cars in order to promote the traffic turnaround.
Only 14 percent advocated battery-operated electric cars.
Little hope of driving services
The fuel cell has a particularly large number of fans among Union and FDP voters.
Almost one in two of them would like technical support.
In the case of Green trailers, hydrogen and battery are closest to each other (28 to 23 percent).
Local public transport received the greatest popularity in the survey with 61 percent.
Long-distance rail traffic followed with 41 percent.
The result strongly represents the wishes of the majority of motorists, said traffic expert Andreas Knie to SPIEGEL.
»Car drivers would like local transport to be expanded so that there is more space on the road.
But they don't drive it themselves. "
Knie is not surprised that innovative means of transport that can be booked via an app, such as car pooling or car sharing, generate little enthusiasm.
“These are not really well-known modes of transport to this day, except in the big cities.
Otherwise, only around a third of the population know what car sharing actually is. ”However, many scientists believe that such systems have great potential.
E-bikes, bicycles and cargo bikes, which only 15 percent of the electorate urgently want the state to support, also perform very poorly.
The support for these vehicles is particularly high among the unemployed (30 percent).
The idea that high earners in particular use or want to use cargo bikes in hip city districts does not seem to be covered by reality.
Most recently, the Greens suggested that the public sector should support the purchase of a cargo bike with 1000 euros.
Union parliamentary deputy Ulrich Lange warned that this would only benefit a "clientele whose way of life should be generously subsidized by others."
The FDP also worried that low-wage earners would be burdened in favor of the rich.
Reservations against battery electric cars
E-scooters apparently failed almost across the board with the Germans.
Only one percent would like this mode of transport to be supported.
Many people still consider battery electric cars to be too expensive, despite purchase premiums, according to a survey by the German Association of the Automotive Industry (VDA).
For 63 percent, too high acquisition costs speak against a purchase.
The respondents see further obstacles to buying in the small number of charging stations (64 percent), the duration of charging (53 percent) and the range of the vehicles (59 percent).
58 percent of those surveyed consider it questionable whether e-cars are really more environmentally friendly than combustion engines.
The German state is currently promoting both battery and hydrogen cars.
Buyers receive a subsidy of up to 6,000 euros from the state via the Federal Office of Economics and Export Control.
In addition, there is a discount of up to 3000 euros (net) from the manufacturer.
Hardly any hydrogen cars available
However, only e-cars that cost a maximum of 65,000 euros (net list price) are funded in this program.
The full rate is only available for cars that cost a maximum of 40,000 euros.
Thus, buyers of the Toyota Mirai (from approx. 54,000 euros) only get the lower state subsidy of 5000 euros.
The more expensive Hyundai Nexo is not even on the funding list.
There are currently no other hydrogen car series models available in Germany.
Peugeot wants to soon offer a transporter with the drive, BMW is planning a fuel cell X5 for the end of 2022, available to a select group of customers.
In contrast, companies such as Volkswagen, Mercedes or Stellantis have dozens of battery-electric models on offer.
The fuel cell cars can hardly get any further on one tank of fuel than the best battery cars on one charge. In addition, there are just 92 filling stations and the fuel is significantly more expensive than electricity. Volkswagen boss Herbert Diess has emphasized several times that he considers hydrogen technology for cars to be largely pointless. However, the vehicles score with the fact that they can be refueled quickly - which is apparently important to many drivers.
The crux of hydrogen is its poor energy balance: Large amounts of electricity are required for its production, for example when converting water into hydrogen and oxygen. The bottom line is that, according to VW, the efficiency of the hydrogen drive is only 25 to 35 percent, the battery car is therefore 70 to 80 percent. According to some calculations, the production of a battery car is no longer more energy-consuming than that of a hydrogen car.
