Fuel cell vehicles system costs

The costs of a PEMFC stack are composed of the costs of the membrane, electrode, bipolar plates, platinum catalysts, peripheral materials and the costs of assembly. For the fuel-cell vehicle, the costs of the electric drive (converter, electric motor, inverter, hydrogen and air pressurisation, control electronics, cooling systems, etc.) and the hydrogen storage system have to be added. Current costs of PEM fuel-cell stacks are around 2000/kW, largely dominated by the costs of the bipolar plates and... 

Pt is, however, an expensive and limited resource. For a 60 kW fuel cell vehicle, the cost of Pt would be over 2,400 at current cost and loading of Pt. Even worse, replacing combustion engines in all existing vehicles by fuel cell drive systems at no penalty in power would exceed the known reserves of Pt. Catalyst layer design, therefore, strives to reduce the Pt loading markedly at no penalty in the fuel cell voltage. 

Today, the power train costs of fuel-cell vehicles are still far from being competitive. They have the largest influence on the economic efficiency of hydrogen use in the transport sector and the greatest challenge is to drastically reduce fuel-cell costs from currently more than 2000/kW to less than 100/kW for passenger cars. On the other hand, fuel-cell drive systems offer totally new design opportunities for... 

Are the net energy and environmental benefits of gasoline-powered fuel cell vehicles worth the extra cost of the system ... 

The committee estimates that the fuel cell system, including on-board storage of hydrogen, will have to decrease in cost to less than 100 per kilowatt (kW)4 before fuel cell vehicles (FCVs) become a plausible commercial option, and that it will take at least a decade for this to happen. In particular, if the cost of the fuel cell system for light-duty vehicles does not eventually decrease to the 50/kW range, fuel cells will not propel the hydrogen economy without some regulatory mandate or incentive. 

Fuel cell vehicle development. Increase research and development (R D) to facilitate breakthroughs in fuel cell costs and in durability of fuel cell materials, as well as breakthroughs in on-board hydrogen storage systems ... 

The total cost of a system at this scale would be about 2.5 million. It is anticipated that electrolysis technology scales with an 85 percent factor, so smaller-scale systems, with somewhat higher unit costs, are entirely feasible. For example, a facility with half the fueling capability (60 cars per day) would cost about 1.25 million, plus a 15 percent scaling factor. The scalability of electrolysis is one of the important factors relating to its likely use in early-stage fuel cell vehicle adoption. The electrochemical efficiency of electrolysis is essentially independent of scale. 

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