Plug-in fuel cell electric vehicles: Are they more cost-efficient than battery electric vehicles?

Plug-in fuel cell electric vehicles (PFCEVs) emerge as promising zero-emission alternatives able to combine the efficiency of the battery with a fuel cell range extender. Thus, in this work, PFCEVs composed of different battery, fuel cell, and hydrogen tank sizes were investigated and compared to battery electric vehicles (BEVs) considering the cost of the propulsion system, powertrain energy consumption, and total fuel cost. The results show that PFCEVs are promising alternatives to the BEVs, showing about 10% lower total cost even for the scenario where the hydrogen price is high, and the electricity price is low. These results can be related to the higher cost and weight of the batteries to provide long-distance ranges for the BEVs. The PFCEV sizing showed that investment cost has more impact on the total cost of the vehicle than fuel consumption, supporting the use of smaller batteries, fuel cells, and hydrogen tanks.