Hydrogen and Solar Cars Could Fuel the Future of California

On a sunny Sacramento morning in September 2020, Governor Gavin Newsom announced an ambitious mandate that would ban the sale of gas cars in California by the year 2035.

Click for bigger version

"Our cars shouldn't make wildfires worse and create more days filled with smoky air," he said in a statement. "Cars shouldn't melt glaciers or raise sea levels threatening our cherished beaches and coastlines."

However, the Governor's plan isn't exactly possible at the rate at which California is progressing. According to experts in engineering, technology needed to make it a feasible goal certainly exists. Still, a lot needs to happen to pull off a smooth transition away from gas cars, including further development of alternative fueling methods besides plug-in electric.

As California inches toward the deadline, plug-in electric vehicles like Tesla are easily the most popular alternative among consumers; however, experts fear that a state primarily run by plug-in electric vehicles is unrealistic or that 2035 is too soon of a deadline.

"You can create shortages, you can drive up prices, you can withhold options people want, but I don't think that's a very realistic objective," said James Moore, emeritus professor at the University of Southern California and expert in transportation policy. "I would be very surprised if it happens."

Tesla sold 3,791 Model Xs in 2022.

In the race to eliminate gas-powered cars, some say all three gas alternatives will need to work together. "I don't think there needs to be just one option," said Jeff Feldman, a hydrogen car owner living in Culver City. "I think you can have electric; you can have hydrogen, you can have a cleaner fuel car. I don't think there'll ever be just one. And I think it's important to actually have different ones, as we've seen with the oil crisis going on. You know, gas is not good."

Transportation emissions account for 50 percent of the air pollution throughout California. That data comes from a study by the Environmental Defense Fund, a nonprofit environmental advocacy group based in New York. According to Newsom's plan, California will not be allowed to produce gasoline-powered cars and will instead focus on manufacturing more eco-friendly alternatives such as plug-in electric, hydrogen, and solar panel cars.

Plug-in electric: the current go-to alternative

But a peaked interest in gas alternatives also increases interest in profiting from a growing market. Currently, Tesla is the number one seller of electric vehicles in the United States. Elon Musk's car company, founded in 2003, quickly became California's beacon of hope for eliminating vehicle emissions. The company sold 172,700 Model Ys in 2021 alone. This number does not include other models.

According to analysts, a surge in electric car charging also threatens California's power grid. People have already experienced stricter rules regarding household electricity usage. Southern California Edison charges more to use electricity during the peak hours of 4-9 p.m. or 5-8 p.m., depending on the household's payment plan. This is because of the strain overuse causes to the grid. If every single person in California had to plug in their car, the grid could not support the amount of electricity required, according to a retired California auto executive.

Click for bigger version

In other words: California’s power grid is nearly maxed out. If California can barely support the current demand, he says it would be close to impossible to support the demand in a fully-electric future. According to a study at Stanford University, the power grid would need to undergo significant changes to support an estimated 8 million electric cars by 2030. This would mean more tax dollars spent on electric charging technology.

A spokesperson from Governor Newsom’s office noted that the state spent $3.9 billion in 2021 on the zero-emissions plan. This year’s budget is set to increase that amount by $2 billion to “massively scale up EV infrastructure.”

Some advocates for electric vehicles also believe that there is a sustainable future for the industry in California. "I am 100 percent [on board to] stop these electric car mandates and start the mandates on updating the grid," said Will Morrise, a Tesla owner from Long Beach, dawning a t-shirt that read: friends don't let friends drive gas. "California shuts down when the wind blows. New York shuts down when the ice storm comes… We've gotta update the grid as a national project to allow for millions of cars charging now (….) But yes, we need to transition away from gas and oil, but we're not gonna be there. So right now we need gas and oil, and we have electric [as the alternative]."

Aside from problems electric vehicle owners might face with a power shortage, the lithium batteries inside these cars threaten climate change on a global scale. According to a report from the United Nations Conference on Trade and Development , or UNCTAD, the lithium required to make these batteries is mined beneath regions of Argentina, Bolivia, and Chile. Indigenous farmers now compete with miners for essential resources such as water in one of the driest regions in the world. In Chile, lithium and other mining consume up to 65 percent of the water. As UNICEF explained in the report, excavation dust is known to cause health problems such as respiration diseases and birth defects. Still, electric vehicles continue to drive the eco-friendly auto market.

Hydrogen: a cleaner option

Despite the explosion of plug-in electric vehicles, alternatives such as hydrogen fuel cells have been studied long before the creation of electric cars.

When Neil Armstrong first stepped foot on the moon in 1969, Americans were enamored by NASA's advances in aerospace technology. Making a rocket that could withstand the atmospheric pressure long enough to reach space and then travel safely for a week-long voyage to the moon was, at the time, an unbelievable feat. But an electrical engineer living in Bangladesh wondered less about the moon and more about the darkness that surrounded it.

Nazmul Ula's curiosity separated him from other electrical engineers back then. When the United States Information Services (USIS), held an event in Bangladesh, Ula was invited to attend a presentation about emissions. Brilliantly, or "naively," as he put it, he asked, "In this darkness of space, how do they see? Do they take flashlights?"

Nazmul Ula
Professor of Electrical and Computer Engineering

Flashlights were the only portable lights that Ula knew of at this time. However, for this mission, they had developed a new form of technology that became known as the fuel cell. In Ula’s simplest terms, a fuel-cell generates its own electricity from hydrogen. But this was the just beginning of fuel-cell technology, the speaker explained, and engineers hoped to use it to power cars in the distant future.

“It’s 1969,” remembered Ula. “And I said, ‘I want one of those cars.’”

Ula now lives in Los Angeles and works at Loyola Marymount University as a professor of computer science and electrical engineering. He is more environmentally conscious than ever and actively works to combat climate change in his daily life. Most days, he walks to work to avoid contributing to air pollution, and when he has to drive, he takes his hydrogen fuel cell car. Annually, he spends zero money on fuel.

Hydrogen fuel might not be as profitable as plug-in electric vehicles at this time, but in California, these cars are more common than consumers are led to believe. Throughout Los Angeles County, 32 gas stations have hydrogen-fueling pumps. These pumps work similarly to a standard gas pump, except drivers don't pay any money out of pocket to use them. Instead, they use a card preloaded by either Toyota, Honda, or Hyundai to pay for up to $15,000 worth of fuel.

Click for bigger version

Though free fuel sounds like a no-brainer, geographic restrictions make it difficult for many drivers to switch to a hydrogen fuel-cell vehicle.

There are currently no hydrogen fueling stations in the U.S. outside of California. This means that people who rely on their hydrogen vehicles as their only means of transportation cannot drive to other states.

Fueling is also a concern for drivers who regularly commute between LA and the Bay Area. Only one station offers hydrogen between Los Angeles County and the Bay Area, located in Coalinga. This means that all hydrogen owners depend on one station, and that station gets pretty backed up. If that station runs out of hydrogen, drivers are completely stuck until a new supply is delivered the next day.

Hydrogen car brands, such as Honda, also provide the incentive of seven days of free rental-car credit if hydrogen car owners need to borrow a gas car to leave the state. "So when we need something to go for a vacation or something, [we] just rent [a gas car]," explained Ula, leaning against his Toyota Mirai. "How many times are we going to go on vacation? Maybe 30 days or 15 days a year. Those 15 days you are producing pollution. Yes. But average it over the year; you are saving the world."

Solar: another option on the horizon

Hydrogen isn't the only alternative fueling that's making headway, though. Less than 40 miles north of San Diego, in Carlsbad, lives Aptera, a company at the forefront of solar charging technology.

"The grid is not a totally clean source of energy, it's still polluting, it's still not ideal," said Brooke Engerman, a spokesperson for Aptera. "So we believe that the future is full solar and that [Aptera] is the first step in getting there."

At heart, an Aptera is an electric car — but it does not need to be plugged into the power grid on a daily basis. Instead, an Aptera charges by sitting in the sunlight. With its surface area covered in miniature solar panels, the car charges not only when sitting motionless in a driveway but also as it drives. The car can store up to 40 miles of solar power in a single day, meaning that until this charge runs out, it doesn’t need to be plugged in at all.

Brooke Engerman
PR Manager at Aptera

It almost feels improper to refer to these as "cars" since they look like something from a Star Wars film. Aptera could not have taken a more different approach in their design from that of gas, electric, and even hydrogen cars. But why?

Aptera has a very distinctive bird-like appearance to optimize its stored energy. "You know, energy is lost all the time by regular, big boxy vehicles that push air out of the way and use all of their energy to do so," said Engerman. "So we actually worked with NASA scientists and tried to come up with how you have the vehicle that can have the least amount of air resistance or drag of anything else on the road."

Click for bigger version

An Aptera is designed to slide through the air as opposed to any other car, which pushes the air aside. In theory, it takes significantly less work to keep the vehicle moving forward, therefore requiring less fuel use.

The only challenge Aptera has yet to overcome is its small audience. To date, 30,000 Aptera reservations have been made worldwide — those are set to hit the road in 2023. On an international scale, the number of reservations is minuscule. Engerman expressed her vision for the future, saying, "We are looking at how we can combine the vehicle with the circular economy. So, buy-back programs and recycling, and that's something we're actively pursuing."

While Newsom's zero-emission plan seems unattainable by 2035, an increase in hydrogen and solar technology will help speed up the process of eliminating gas-powered cars. In the near future, California is certain to set an example for the rest of the world of a more environmentally-conscious way of life. "One thing we should, as human beings, should understand is we can never have a hundred percent clean energy source. Not possible," said Ula. "Anything we do will have some effects, right? Some implications. So what we need to do as a group is reduce the footprint. Not eliminate the footprint — that's not possible — but reduce the footprint."