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The German bus operator is not using battery-powered cars; after a three-month alternative test, they are significantly worse
yesterday | Petr Prokopec
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Photo: Solaris, press materials
For years we have basically only been saying one thing: the world is too colorful for black and white solutions to work in it. That’s why the push for purely battery-powered electromobility is pointless and, alongside alternatives that are anything but perfect, is already a poor solution.
To be honest, I don’t care what engine my car has. I don’t care whether I put gasoline, diesel or electricity or hydrogen in it. For me, utility is key. In this respect, however, the internal combustion engine clearly has the upper hand, as it has a range of around a thousand kilometers, which can be “restored” almost anytime and anywhere by simply refueling. In addition, its contents hardly decompose, so that what you pour in for a week will still be there after 14 days, for example.
Nevertheless, politicians have come to the opinion that private transport equipped with combustion engines is perhaps responsible for all of the world’s problems. And that’s why they effectively banned the sale of gasoline and diesel cars. Almost the only generally acceptable alternative then became battery power, which is an infinitely worse solution due to its price, practicality and lifespan. And for many applications it is completely unsuitable due to its technical and economic limitations.
We’d find a decent range of them, but the main difficulty is cars, no matter how big and powerful, for which current batteries can’t provide enough energy in a reasonably large and heavy package. This is also shown by the results of the three-month pilot program that took place in Munich and Egersberg. Hydrogen buses from the Polish company Solaris have been deployed in these areas to test whether they are better than the battery-powered buses the local operator is already using. And as you can probably guess, the scales’ hands are clearly tilted towards hydrogen. Although it also has significant disadvantages, it is clearly ahead in terms of range, charging speed and passenger capacity. And these are the main aspects that buses are all about.
Martin Geldhauser, head of the bus company in both regions mentioned, explained that although battery buses can travel around 300 kilometers in one go before stopping at a charging station for six to eight hours, hydrogen buses are comparable to diesel ones in terms of their operational capability. . On average they cover a distance of 450 km, the record is 550 km. Refilling the tanks on the roof then only takes 15 minutes. And besides, hydrogen buses can carry up to 100 passengers, while battery-powered ones only have 80. There is simply nothing to solve here, battery-powered buses have no future here.
The only problem currently is the price of hydrogen, which makes it more expensive to operate than diesel or battery buses. But that is also likely to change in the future, because Geldhauser wants to invest 27 million euros (approx. 667 million CZK) in its own production and distribution of hydrogen. Of course, not everyone can afford something like this, but we are the last to claim that there is a silver bullet, that there is a great solution that is suitable for everything and everyone. That’s not the case, and the HyBayern pilot project only confirmed it in the end – here hydrogen is better than batteries, somewhere else it may be the other way around and elsewhere diesel will be invincible. So you have to look at the matter and try to find the best solution for the specific case. It is so hard?
Hydrogen buses are slightly taller than diesel buses because their tanks are on the roof. Otherwise, in contrast to the battery models, they are completely comparable to combustion engines. This means they have a considerable range, quick refueling and even more capacity. The Bavarian bus operator is now betting on this, even if it requires hundreds of millions of investments in the hydrogen infrastructure. Photo: Solaris, press materials
Source: Focus
Petr Prokopec
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