Making the transportation sector more sustainable is of vital importance to the planet – but there’s more than one path to reaching this goal, as you’ll hear in this expert panel discussion with Jennifer Jacobs Dungs of EIT InnoEnergy and BMW Group’s Michael Rath.
Moderator David Kirkpatrick (Techonomy) leads a conversation about the evolving landscape of electric vehicles, highlighting both battery and hydrogen fuel cell technologies.
Michael Rath, BMW’s VP for hydrogen vehicles, makes a compelling case for fuel cell technology as complementary to battery electric vehicles. “The future is clearly electric”, he states, emphasizing BMW’s commitment to reducing CO2 emissions.
But hydrogen does have a key advantage when it comes to refueling, he notes, as drivers can go “from zero to 100% in three to four minutes.” In addition, hydrogen-powered vehicles offer strategic resilience, he argues, noting that “fuel cell electric vehicles engage entirely different materials” than battery EVs, reducing dependence on China-dominated supply chains.
Jennifer Dungs agrees that e-mobility is on track to overtaking combustion engines. “We’re at the tipping point now, arguably”, she says, noting that “25% of the automotive sales globally will be battery electric” in 2025.
This development is driven by significant technology advancements in cost, range, and battery lifetime, she says, but warns that “83% of the battery capacity for automotive is coming from Asia” – which puts the European automobile industry “at a great risk, especially today when we all think of the geopolitics and tariffs and the global tensions.”
Watch the video to get more insights into hydrogen technology as a crucial component in the broader energy transition, and how green hydrogen could have even greater impact when applied to industries like steel production and fertilizer manufacturing.
