Volkswagen rules out hydrogen cars, will focus on EVs instead

Volkswagen will refrain from making hydrogen-fuelled passenger cars in the foreseeable future. Instead, the German auto giant will focus on further developing electric vehicles, claimed Volkswagen CEO Thomas Schafer in an interaction with AutoBild Spain. He said that hydrogen as a fuel for vehicles has some big disadvantages compared to battery technology used in electric vehicles.

Citing this reason, he further stated that hydrogen fuel cell technology is not for Volkswagen, at least not in the next ten years. “It's not competitive, especially not for passenger cars, the tanks take up space in the cabin. Maybe for commercial vehicles, but not in the passenger car. So, I don't see this happening in this decade. Not at Volkswagen," Schafer said.

Volkswagen CEO sees greater opportunity for growth in pure electric vehicles, as more and more customers wish to switch from internal combustion engine-powered cars to electric vehicles, with its overall global sales in 2022 going down by seven per cent, but with impressive numbers on the EV front.

Interestingly, the German automaker's CEO's comment comes at a time when several global auto majors like Honda, Toyota, Hyundai and BMW are exploring hydrogen fuel cells as an alternative powertrain technology. These automakers are investing a great amount of money in the development of hydrogen fuel cell technology. In fact, car brands like Toyota, Hyundai and Honda have launched their respective cars in the segment. BMW rolled out X5 with the technology. However, these don't seem to bother Volkswagen, as it aims to follow its own principle.

Interestingly, hydrogen is considered as a pure form of zero-emission fuel, as the only tailpipe emission coming from it is water. The main drawback infrastructure this technology is the high costs and lack of infrastructure to support this.