Mercedes-Benz and Volkswagen rule out hydrogen power for cars

In stark contrast with BMW, Jaguar Land Rover, Toyota and Hyundai, Europe’s biggest two car-makers say hydrogen fuel-cell powertrains just don’t make sense for passenger cars.

While Hyundai this week promised to popularise FCEV technology by 2040 by applying it to everything from heavy trucks to sports cars, Daimler CEO Ola Kallenius told carsales at the Munich motor show that Mercedes-Benz remains steadfast in its commitment to offer battery-electric technology in all of its models by 2025.

But when asked whether Mercedes' position had changed on hydrogen, Kallenius ruled out FCEV tech for everything but heavy trucks.

“We believe in the transformation [to net zero emissions]. We want to accelerate to full electrification before the end of the decade and battery-electric will be the technology of choice because of the scaling that's already happening there,” he said.

The Mercedes-Benz chairman believes there is a future for fuel-cells, but unlike rival car-makers he says it won’t be for passenger cars – even the largest luxury SUV for Mercedes.

“Only for heavy trucks where you have maybe a 40-tonne truck that needs to go around 1000km a day does the higher density of hydrogen as opposed to putting a very, very large battery under a truck make sense,” he said.

“That's where we think the crossover point is.”

Kallenius said that instead of a vast network of refuelling stations, the heavy truck industry require only highway-based hydrogen refuelling stations to adopt FCEV tech.

That view is at odds with closest rival BMW and other car-makers including Land Rover and fuel-cell pioneers Hyundai and Toyota, which have declared they will introduce more hydrogen-fuelled passenger vehicles in the near future.

But it aligns with General Motors and the Volkswagen Group, which has also pulled the plug on development of fuel-cell passenger cars.

“You won’t see any hydrogen usage in cars,” Volkswagen CEO Herbert Diess told the Financial Times in March.

And despite revealing the h-tron concept in 2016 and revealing it would accelerate fuel-cell development as recently as 2019, Audi now says it will also abandon FCEV tech in favour of BEVs.

“I don’t think the fuel-cell will be relevant for cars in general,” Audi head of corporate strategy Silja Pieh told carsales prior to the Munich show.

“We have the Vorsprung 2030 strategy, and that sets a clear focus on electric mobility,” she said.

Audi will end internal-combustion engine development by 2026 and sell only electric cars from 2033, but they won’t be hydrogen-fuelled – even if it remains responsible for fuel-cell development within the Volkswagen Group.

“The know-how is there [and] I am absolutely certain we will keep it on a certain level, just to be able to have it for different use cases, for example in the VW Group,” said Pieh.

“There’s a possibility this technology will be used but I believe for Audi, for single cars, that’s not going to be important.”

Meantime this week, BMW revealed a production-ready iX5 at its hometown motor show in Munich, while Toyota has promised to release its second-generation Mirai in Australia, Land Rover is developing a Defender FCEV and INEOS is working on a hydrogen-powered Grenadier with Hyundai.