SMART ENERGY
“THE CUSTOMER CAN CHOOSE THE APPLICATION OR THE POWERTRAIN THAT BEST SUITS THEIR LIFESTYLE [ AND ] THAT BEST SUITS THEIR FLEET ’ S NEEDS ”
JACKIE BIRDSALL SENIOR ENGINEERING MANAGER , TOYOTA
Therefore , many vehicle manufacturers , researchers and consumers have started to recognise the potential that batteries and fuel cells have when their capabilities are put together to power electric vehicles .
“ I think we will see in the next year that we will need both technologies ,” Bernd Heid , McKinsey & Co Senior Partner , told Automotive News . “ The interesting part is that it ’ s not only dependent on the propulsion technology of the powertrain , but it also has to do with the infrastructure . And we will see that two infrastructures will be cheaper to society than if we just do allelectric infrastructure .”
Jackie Birdsall , Senior Engineering Manager of Toyota ’ s Fuel Cell Integration Group , agreed : “ Hydrogen and fuel cell electric vehicles are complementary . There ’ s two different use cases . Our job is to give these zero-emission technologies , to make them available to the customer , and then the customer can choose the application or the powertrain that best suits their lifestyle [ and ] that best suits their fleet ’ s needs .”
Heid and Birdsall argue that both batteryelectric and fuel-cell electric vehicles will be needed to achieve global decarbonisation goals . Whereas batteries will likely remain known for their efficient reuse of energy
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