Technology

Hydrogen, even with fuel cell/electric, is not suitable for rural car owners. It's only really suitable for vehicles that are constantly running, like freight trucks. Why? Because hydrogen leaks out of any vessel you try to put it in. It's the smallest element in the universe so it slips past the molecules of whatever sealing material you are using. It will even permeate through solid metal, making said metal brittle in the process. And this problem of course gets worse at higher pressures, which you have to use to get any energy density.

So not only do you have to contend with the terrible efficiency loss of using electricity to create hydrogen only to turn it back into electricity again, a whole bunch of your fuel is constantly leaking out during transport and storage. And then if you use cryogenic hydrogen for the best energy density it gets worse again because you can't keep it cold enough. It's constantly boiling off and has to be vented to prevent your tank from exploding.

So even if you solve all the myriad other implementation problems with hydrogen, you're never escaping the fact that you need to use all your fuel quickly or you're setting money on fire as it leaks. Not to mention potentially getting stuck because you didn't drive your car for a few days and now you don't have the fuel to reach a fill station.

Hence why, if it ever matures enough to become actually viable, it will almost certainly be limited to freight and courier type vehicles. They run near constantly and so burn through fuel fast enough that the leakage isn't an issue.