Before the gigafactory there were plenty of barriers to a cheap EV too. I find it hard to believe if energy was spent on graphene water filters for seawater and electrolysis powered by solar for things to be far further along than they are now. I'm happy with batteries. But if you put energy into improving fuel cells your going to get improvements as well.
A lot of research has been done on hydrogen fuel cells over the last 50 years, but you still require several breakthroughs for hydrogen to make any kind of sense:
1. Clean hydrogen produced from electrolysis requires 3-5 times more energy per mile travelled. You may say that that's irrelevant if the energy is clean, but no. The difference is that where a BEV can make due with ~3 kW of rooftop solar, small enough to fit on a typical garage, a hydrogen car would require 9-15 kW. There's no such thing as free energy.
2. Storage. Today, hydrogen cars store hydrogen in pressure tanks at 700 bar. But the gravimetric and volumetric energy densities aren't great. If you compare a Toyota Mirai to a Model 3, the Model 3 will have a lower curb weight, longer range, an extra seat, and the trunk isn't occupied by a large hydrogen tank. 700 bar hydrogen storage will *never* have acceptable volumetric energy density, as the properties of hydrogen won't change. The gravimetric energy density might improve, if you start using hydrogen tanks made out of carbon nanotubes or something similar. (Today they're made out of carbon fiber.) Improving the gravimetric energy density will be costly.
3. Safety. Hydrogen is the most explosive gas known to man. A wide range of hydrogen-air mixtures ignite extremely easily, and are known to self-ignite. This may not be an issue for the first 10 years of a hydrogen cars life, but as the car depreciates, you can expect shortcuts to be made. At some point the public would have to get used to regular explosions, like they've gotten used to gasoline cars bursting into flames.
If fuel cells have any kind of future in road transportation, I think Nissan is on the right track. They're looking at using ethanol fuel cells. Ethanol is much easier to transport and produce. It's also much safer.
A fuel cell will have a much better lifespan than a battery.
No. Everything points to the batteries having a better lifespan. A Model S battery is expected to last 300k miles. A fuel cell may last as little as 100k miles.
And is much less environmentally damaging than a battery.
Highly debatable. Environmental impact and production cost go hand in hand, and fuel cells aren't exactly cheap.
