Electricity? Hydrogen? Synthetic Fuel? What's The Future? | Top Gear Series 32 

The problem is that for Hydrogen to be liquid it need to be stored at 700 Bar. If you worked with compressed gases you know how much of a problem that is in pratice.

Porsche's synthetic carbon neutral fuel ⛽️ is BRILLIANT. I got to try it out in my Range Rover SVA and it ran the same as my usual 93-octane. No infrastructure or car changes necessary. $4 a gallon in USA. It'll go down with increased consumption

I hope synthetec fuel is gonna save all the nice cars

unfortunately no matter what route we take the energy company will rinse every penny out of us even when they've mastered the process and can make an abundance of fuel.

The amount of energy required to crack hydrogen from H2O (electrolysis) is three times the amount required to charge up a battery directly for the equivalent amount of energy/range. The hydrogen fuel cells contain a large amount of precious metals(platinum). So a moderate amount of electricity goes into an expensive, precious metals battery or a massive amount of electricity goes into hard-to-crack hydrogen fuel, with a high-pressure storage and a precious metal hydrogen converter(Fuel Cell) or Synthetic Fuel process. Either way, you still need a huge electrical infrastructure build-up and a large increase in mining precious metals to make this work... Think three times the current electrical generation capacity.

Beside the storage problem for hydrogen, the energy loss in the processchain is massive at 70-80%, from the point you create the energy to create the hydrogen until to you press the pedal and use the energy in your car. Compared to EV's, this process only has a 5-10% loss. You can charge 3 EV's at the same cost of one hydrogen car. However, if we can create an exessive amount of carbon neutral energy, that is not an issue, but right now we are not even close to create carbon neutral electricity for our current need.

Not so minor detail, all ICE emit many gasses apart from CO2 and H2O. Although in small cuantities it makes them fall out of any zero-emissions regulation. Nitrogen oxides, carbon particles, unburned fuel, engine oil fumes, etc. Not an easy problem to solve.

Same problem for both hydrogen and synthetic fuel, the production is very inefficient.

We get to keep all our awesome cars - synthetic fuels all the way!!

JCB's take on hydrogen is what, in my opinion, makes most sense. They basically re-did their original diesel engines to work with hydrogen, without fuel cells.

This truly gives me hope for the future, I really can't thank Porsche enough.

manufacturers need to start developing and pushing synthetic fuel for a gasoline replacement ahead of time. like now.

So either of the other fuel requires clean electricity to synthesize. Why not just make more of clean energy and people can choose between Battery electrics, Hydrogen electrics and Synthetic? Can’t we just let the consumer decide what they want?

It's unfortune so many people think this is the only way cars could go.... People have started using transport specifically designed to be personalized (and therefore inefficient), instead of the much more specialized trains, trams and still more ecological buses. It shouldn't be this way though, why can't we just reduce global car usage by 95% by heavily prioritizing public transit? That way the 5% of them that are left are left to enthusiast and weekend use and any pollution that we end up with is merely a fraction of what we get now.

What they didn't say is how much electrical energy it takes to make that fuel. It's quite a lot so the chance that it will be from only "green" energy is highly unlikely

FYI Porsche's Synthetic Fuel partner is EXXON MOBIL. Why did you leave that out?

Now you just need some carbon neutral tyres because they won't last long driving like that 😊

Ethanol is superior to synthetic fuel and cheaper to obtain. The principle is very similar.

Great stuff Chris! I just had a meeting a few days ago with a German eFuel company. The price per litre? Aroud 5 €. Including local petrol tax and VAT. That's good news for us (e)petrolheads. Ok, still more than double compared to fossile petrol, but getting there.

Great show

That SVJ Roadster is perfection

That's going to create a lot of nice ice on cold winter roads with water as exhaust.

There are two ways to make Hydrogen. Cheap inefficient way is to burn natural gas and convert it. Green way of creating hydrogen is electrolysis is expensive and will not be used. The urge to go hydrogen is the great hope of people that own gas stations.

0:48 No one will build a "green" hydrogen plant which will have a utilization factor of about 40٪. Billions of dollars invested into ax plant which sits idle 60% of the time? Un, no. The only entity inefficient and irresponsible enough to do that is a government and that spending would drive inflation even higher. 5:11 Again, no one is going to build a multi-billion dollar plant which runs intermittently and unpredictably about 40% of the time!

Let’s hope these technologies are ramped up sooner as opposed to later.

How much energy does it take to make the synthetic eFuel? Extracting and separating the Carbon from the air sounds like a daunting process. Then extracting Hydrogen from water also takes a tremendous amount of energy. Then you still have to combine and refine those into the actual fuel. Not to mention the fact that you then have to transport it half way around the world because currently the only place it is produced is a remote part of Chile. FYI: 10 Quid per liter is about $45 per gallon in the US.

Couple of errors here - as an SA motoring editor I drove a hydrogen BMW in Germany perhaps 20 years ago. Including a fill-up... Amazing car.

Yeah this hydrogen and synthethic fuel will always be fuel of the future, it will always stay in the future. The inefficiencies in making both fuels are so great, it will never become cheap. While an EV is very cheap to drive, already for some years now. Of course it is expensive to buy, but those prices are coming down now too.

I get that this is Top Gear, but the real solution is to drive less and have better infrastructure built around people and not cars. Cycling paths, dedicated bus lanes, trams, and trains. The problem with saying that the synthetic fuel they used in the video is carbon neutral therefore it's what we should do is that we should aim to be carbon negative. And cars, being the least efficient for of transport beside a plane, is the problem, not the fuel that powers them.

Hydrogen containment is a little more of an issue than Propane molecules.

Interesting indeed.!!

Use electricity to make hydrogen to then compress it, store it and use it in a car that will then convert it back to electricity to move itself is nonsense. This is a fantastic waste of energy. Also for e-fuel you're gonna need a extraordinary amont of electricity to create them, and this will also cost quite a lot...

They should all be available, but people should be told truth. My pick would be hydrogen powered technologies like Honda and BMW had over 10 years but got fight and pulled plug, now Hyundai has one but not for fuel economy.

I’m very surprised the BBC even let them film this.

In fact, Porsche has started developing synthetic fuel as an experiment for their racing cars, like the Porsche 911 GT3 Racing Cars.

That Lamborghini going round the track makes me wanna say no to electric cars.

The future will be a mixture of all fuel sources, obviously.

Loved profesor Harris 😎

Epic ending for this video!!!

god i wish james had this opportunity in TG or TGT to explain it to us so i can cure my insomnia

Hydrogen is dumb

Nice one, TG. When I saw the title of the video, I was hoping it would focus on synthetic fuels. It did. Yay. Electric cars have their place for some, but... hell no. And I say this whilst currently having a new BMW i3S in the garage. We've had it almost a year. It's brilliantly useless and uselessly brilliant. A really interesting, novelty cul de sac.

I love it 🔥

Que bendicion! ahh, compartan compartan compartan compartan compartan compartan .

I remember the Top Gear video extolling the virtues of diesel when that came out, and now look at it...

-There are fuel stations all over the country -how many? -twelve

Please do a review of Gumpert Nathalie sport car which uses a methanol fuel-cell system

Wow what a news 🤩

I wonder how much off the energy giants record profits will go into producing these new types of fuel ⛽️

The last 3 and a half minutes was pure car pornography.

That color on the gt3 is amazing, anyone know what it's called?

top gear is back

What a dumbed down for the masses episode this was. A Hydrogen fuel station would need 18 Tankers to deliver this wonder fuel versus 1 Tanker for Petrol. Hydrogen fuel cell cars need a battery to get a car going?? Hydrogen production to pump is very inefficient. If you burn synthetic fuel you inevitably create lots of lovely carcinogenic gases and again its production to pump is massively inefficient.

Synthetic Fuels look like the stuff of dreams ❤️😩 Sure let all of the NPCs drive their Electric SUVs, just let us drive our Fun Cars with Synthetic Fuels 🌚❤️

Fun summary. It's worth noting that green hydrogen is vanishingly rare at the moment. Most of the production is from natural gas, which kind of misses the point.

The overall process efficiency needs to be assesed...

This is exactly what I needed. I've been hearing about Porsche working on developing a type of synthetic fuel, but I just needed it explained by Chris Harris.

Chris Harris is really the only hope for this show. Too bad he missed out when Jeremy, James and Richard were in it. Good work chris Harris. Real car people can’t relate to the other hosts, more like the other hosts can’t relate to real car people. Oh well.

An ICE is very inefficient compared to a fuel cell..

its interesting that no one is talking about that flames

If it only didn't require at least 10 times more energy than an EV needs to drive the same distance, it would be a good solution

I think you guys have forgotten the reason we're moving to EV's. Hydrogen requires nearly as much energy to produce as it delivers and likewise with synthetic fuel. You then have the problem of transporting it and storing it safely. They're both a complete waste of time.

3:28 Hyundai with Vision 74: Hold my bear

I thought that Honda made a civic that used hydrogen about 20yrs ago?? And a few other vehicles as well. Cheers

Saw an interview with a producer of synthetic fuel a couple of months ago, he said that the fuel is ready to go and all we need is people that can invest in production. And if we did it would be a lot cheaper then todays petrol and diesel. Lithium powerd EV´s is a dead end...

I sure do hope it becomes affordable and plentiful because people care more about their own wallets than the environment.

One of the best drifts

Please do a review of Karma Automotive GS-6 which uses a methanol fuel cell propulsion system from Blue World Technologies

People not interested about driving apart from A-B, will stick to electricity. But people who love driving, are looking for the day synthetic fuel to become widely available.

It's really disappointing that this is dressed up as if it's based on science, but doesn't consider the well to wheel (or EV equivalent) efficiency at all - that's the most important science here. Hydrogen and synthetic fuels can't touch battery electric for efficiency. In the case of environmentally friendly fuels, efficiency has a direct bearing on cost. Hydrogen is circa 30% efficient and synthetic fuels probably even less, and that means they would be at least 3 times as expensive to run as a BEV. People won't pay 3 times as much for fast fuelling, that's not going to happen. The noise is an ongoing problem for sure, but that's the only issue here really - and someone will deliver a decent solution to that with a BEV eventually. It's a done deal, all in all. Its BEVs. We just need to get used to it. I sense fear of change in your video. Don't be frightened of the future, embrace it. EVs are that future - with a few tweaks over the next 5-10 years making them more fun.

omg im wearing the same jumper as Chris Harris

The other problem with Hydrogen and in particular Hydrogen fuel cells is that there are no catalysts available with the combined high efficiency and longevity of Platinum Group Metals, which are of course among the rarest metals on the planet. I was super excited about synthetic fuels, but they still require hydrolysis and the end to end efficiency is about 4x worse than BEVs. I envision a day where eFuel will be say $10/gallon and only the wealthy can afford $1000 or so to go take your Lamborghini or GT3 out for a day at the track, while the rest of us will be driving our silent soleless BEVs.

Synthetic fuel is not a bad idea. The problem is that it will never be cheap enough. A better idea would be to take the hydrogen you were going to put in your Mirai, and to instead put it in a slightly modified Lamborghini. Toyota (and others, like renault) are developing this, they recently made their brilliant GR Yaris engine run on H2 and put it in a corolla

If the supply chain for synthetic fuels are as well opzimized as for fossil fuels then the price will go way down as well

Loved and enjoyed the interview but one thing I felt really bad for Stig who stood there wearing that helmet for about an hour. I bet he enjoyed.

Hydrogen is the best option but it’s costly in both materials and power to make it viable at this current point in time, but so was the ICE once upon a time so I’d say we should just throw R&D at it and if it goes no where at least we tried.

A hybrid HICE (hydrogen internal combustion engine) and fuel cell hypercar was my final year design concept at Uni. It is such a great underfunded fuel source. My argument back then (about 6/7 years ago) was that EVs are only as green as the powerstations you get the energy from. They are also catastrophic in terms of lithium mining. It was such a fun project, so so happy hydrogen is finally getting the respect it deserves.

thanks for making an episode I want to watch again. I'll forego Paddy's accent.... just this once.

Me as a Brazilian, who's been usually filling the tank with E100 made out of sugarcane that's been available since the 1970's, wasn't really impressed with Porsche's synthetic fuel

Answer is. Fuel efficiency. Insulate homes, any car with less than 40mpg is no longer allowed to be sold. Easy solution.

Synthetic fuel 🤔 = exhaust fumes. When I see a video of a presenter breathing in exhaust fumes from these cars and he manages to …. ahem… not die, then maybe Ill be interested

You might want to discuss the relative efficiencies for making these "fuels" in your next, and extremely sombre video. There is only one use case where synthetic fuels are a remotely viable option. Thats long distance air travel, and it's only cos there is no other choice.

What happens to that water vapor being released? How much fog will there be on highways or black ice on cold days?

Its a good option but not practical for everyday use. Who will build out and pay for the ridiculous cost of infrastructure. As well you will never fill hydrogen at home, like an EV where 90% of people charge.

The only thing is, hydrogen is very complicated to store properly...

nothing beats good ol gasoline⛽👍

Elegant!!

This would be so much better if Clarkson was presenting this

I’ll stick with my EV thanks. Can charge at home on cheap electricity, or for free off my home solar ⚡️☀️👍🏻 It couldn’t be any more convenient !

I'm glad someone made an awesome video explaining to people where the car industry is going when it comes to alternative fuel. We love are engines. I like some of these electric cars but I don't want to drive my phone lol 🙃 😅 😆 😂.

The problem is that for Hydrogen to be liquid it need to be stored at 700 Bar. If you worked with compressed gases you know how much of a problem that is in pratice......... thats where evolution comes into play my friend. Yes, I have an understanding of high pressure gases....

Lambo isn’t the last NA V12 though, we have the GMA cars

...How exactly is synthetic fuel carbon neutral ? What comes out of the exhaust ?

Hydrogen is the future - electric is to save the car industries profits :)

BEV Pros: Instantaneous throttle response High amounts of torque Extremely high power density Silent operation The most practical option BEV Cons: Extremely polluting methods of acquiring the materials needed to produce the batteries Batteries are heavy and not easily removable HICEV Pros: All the sound of an ICEV Only substantial emission is water vapor HICEV Cons: Low power density Highly complicated fueling systems The challenging necessity to store hydrogen at nearly 20 degrees kelvin Synthetic ICEV Pros: High adaptability All the sound of an ICEV Only emission is CO2 Any CO2 emitted by the engine is re-used for the sake of fuel production Synthetic ICEV Cons: Depending on implementation, can be fairly harmful to the environment My two cents: I say we go through a hybrid implementation of BEVs and Synthetic ICEVs. Economy cars, commercial vehicles and luxury cars should be powered by batteries and electric motors. Who buys an economy car for the sound of a high-strung inline 4, or a luxury car for the sound of a roaring V12? Only a few. Sports cars should be powered by synthetic fuels, as it maintains the soul of the ICE while drastically reducing emissions (in theory). I liken this scenario to the "Quartz Crisis" in the 1970s. In this time period, wristwatches became extremely accessable to all walks of life, as the need to produce complex mechanical and automatic movements was all but eliminated overnight. All of a sudden, mass-produced, yet quality wristwatches began flooding worldwide markets-- and Switzerland had no part in this. The Swiss Watch Industry was nearly bankrupted, and only watches seen as those targeted towards enthusiasts retained automatic movements, as people still can appreciate the complexity and craftsmanship that goes into a solid automatic watch movement. I think the same thing is going to happen in the car industry, with BEVs being the "Japan" of this analogy and the Oil/Gas industry being the "Switzerland" of this analogy. Most cars on the road will be EVs, but highly coveted "halo cars" will remain powered by ICEs fueled by carbon-neutral fuel.

You missed Hydrogen Combustion engines.

anything that isn't battery powered is the future plain and simple

With hydrogen you have to extract it, pressurize it, and transport it. Then you have to combine it in the fuel cell to make the electricity. It's more efficient to just make a battery EV.

Does anyone remember the name of that old science show? I think it was on bbc. This reminds me of it ?

NOOOO. This Aventadoris not the last v12 from Lamborghini its The Invencible and Autentica, Yes they are based on the Aventador's platform, but feature unique bodies designed by Lamborghni's Centro Stile.