Its environmental performance [ Return towards  The hydrogen car  ]

Calculating the total environmental performance of a car, called “well to wheel”, requires taking emissions into account :

• from the well to the tank: emissions that are produced during the production of the fuel and its transportation to the car;
• from the tank to the wheel: emissions that are produced when the car uses this fuel.

Studies have compared the emissions of identical cars, powered by different fuels: 

• a gasoline-powered car that consumes 7 liters per 100 km; 
• a fuel cell-powered car that consumes 1 kg of hydrogen per 100 km produced by reforming methane and transported by pipeline.

The results show that the use of hydrogen paired with the fuel cell now enables cars to run while dividing CO₂ emissions by 2. 

Source: Concave-Eucar study, 2007

And hydrogen has the potential to bring greenhouse gases down to “zero emission" when it is produced in a “green” way.