Both the federal and state governments have enacted legislation designed to promote the eventual widespread adoption of zero-emissions vehicles. For instance, California enacted the Zero-Emissions-Vehicle (ZEV) program mandating automakers to claim ZEV credits for a small percentage of total vehicle sales starting in 2003. Further, the last version of the 2003 energy bill included over a billion dollars in incentives for automakers to develop technology related to Fuel-Cell Vehicles. Currently, the Fuel-Cell Vehicle (FCV) and the Battery Electric Vehicle (BEV) are the only potential ZEV replacements of the internal combustion engine, however, no studies have directly compared the two technologies in terms of performance and cost when considering the most recent advances in battery and fuel-cell technology. Below, we compare BEV and FCV technologies based on a vehicle model that is capable of delivering 100 kW of peak power, and 60 kWh total energy to the wheels.1 This translates into a vehicle that is capable of delivering 135 horsepower and driving approximately 300 miles. The vehicle characteristics are comparable to a small to midsize car, such as a Honda Civic, representing the largest segment of the light-duty vehicle class [1].
We first compare the relative efficiency of the vehiclesí well-to-wheel pathways. This allows us to calculate the amount of energy a power plant must produce in order to deliver a unit of energy to the wheels of a FCV and a BEV. Next, we compute the volume, weight, and refueling costs associated with each vehicle. We make these calculations first assuming that the hydrogen for the FCVs and the electricity 2 for the BEVs are generated using nonfossil fuel sources. After, we relax this assumption to consider the case where hydrogen is reformed from natural gas and the electricity for BEVs is generated using a mix of fossil fuel and non-fossil fuel sources, such as wind and hydroelectric, as is the norm today.