Current Status and Future Perspectives for Mobility Options Toward Sustainable Transportation With a Focus on Fuel Cells

Abstract

This paper presents a comprehensive analysis of five different vehicle technologies with a particular emphasis on fuel cell vehicles (FCVs) in comparison to conventional gasoline and diesel ICEs, hybrid electric vehicle (HEV), and electric vehicle (EV) technologies. Key parameters in comparison included greenhouse gas emissions (GHG), social cost of carbon (SCC), energy efficiency, fuel consumption, fuel price, driving range, and total cost of ownership (TCO). A normalization approach is employed to rank the technologies across parameters, providing valuable insights for sustainable transportation decision‐making. FCV technology showed the highest average performance (5.343/10) followed by EV technology (4.760/10). The paper also presents current and anticipated hydrogen demand and supply centers, accompanied by a brief overview of commercially available fuel cell technologies. Finally, the sustainability of FCV technology as well as economic, legal, and infrastructural limitations associated with the widespread adoption are also discussed.