One would expect an electric vehicle website to show the worst case scenario regarding hydrogen cars and the best case showing everything else. After all electric cars and hydrogen cars are natural enemies, right?
Well, if you buy into the “Who Killed the Electric Car?” movie you may buy into the idea that hydrogen cars and electric vehicles are natural competitors. After all both are in fact, electric vehicles, with different kinds of battery systems.
But, long time online electric vehicle advocate EV World actually decided to confront the myth about hydrogen cars being so much more dangerous than gasoline-powered vehicles. In fact, they have re-released an article from January 18, 2003 titled, “Hydrogen Car Fire Surprise” in which both a gasoline-powered car and hydrogen car are set on fire on purpose.
The point of this experiment is to see which vehicle would be the most dangerous to drive if it were to catch fire. The photos show a minor gas leak from both vehicles set to flames and how this plays out.
As one would expect, the gasoline car’s leak pools, spreads out and flames finally engulf the vehicle making it the equivalent to a Molotov cocktail. The flame from the hydrogen car, however, simply burns upwards. In a little over two minutes the flame has burned itself out with little damage done to the vehicle or presumably anyone that would have been in it.
This was no Hindenburg disaster. This was no H-bomb experiment. The critics and naysayers of hydrogen play the fear card over and over when talking about the safety of hydrogen cars. The photos on the EV World website are a wonderful example of what would happen if a hydrogen car caught on fire and nowhere near the imaginative ramblings of these who don’t want fuel cell vehicles to succeed.