In the future the hydrogen vehiclesThe car sharing and the hybrid micromobility they will be increasingly widespread solutions to ensure sustainable mobility. The climate emergency In fact, it is expected to be the main challenge of the 21st century, and in Europe it is estimated that transport is responsible for the 25-30% of climate-altering emissions. To meet the objectives of reducing air pollution, in the next 25 years it will be necessary to reduce emissions of 90% compared to 1990. In an ideal world, the adoption of 100% electric vehicles would represent the best solution, and although it is already possible to appreciate the presence on the market of vehicles with discrete performance, it is impossible not to notice how the autonomy of these vehicles is penalized by the efficiency and capacity of the batteries. Let’s see what the main alternative solutions are in this field.
Hydrogen hybrid vehicles
The large presence of internal combustion engines in hybrid vehicles is essentially due to their reliability and to thehigh energy density of the fuels they use. However, there is the possibility of using hybrid vehicles with fuel cell technology (in English fuel cell). It is an electric energy generator, which exploits the electrochemical reaction that occurs between hydrogen and oxygen and thus produces electric energy through (therefore the hydrogen is not “burned” inside the generator). The reaction product is simply water, for this reason the coupling of an electric motor to a fuel cell, allows to obtain clean energy without polluting emissions, limiting the impact on the environment to the industrial production of hydrogen only.
This type of technology is very flexible, in fact – unlike current batteries for electric cars – the cylinders to contain thepressurized hydrogen they are lighter (in terms of energy, transporting 1 kWh “weighs” on average 12.5 kg if stored in current batteries, while for hydrogen only 1.7 kg is enough), and allow for greater autonomy. Furthermore, there is also the possibility of updating vehicles with old series hybrid systems powered by an internal combustion engine to obtain a new low-impact vehicle “almost zero“.
Urban mobility and car sharing
Getting around the city is always a challenge, especially for those who – for work or travel reasons – come from outside, from travel times to finding parking. Even finding a house with a parking space is becoming increasingly difficult, and this is also why in large urban centers Car sharing solutions are becoming increasingly popular.
For the study of sustainable mobility, large-scale events such as the Paris 2024 Olympic Games represent a very interesting scenario, as the participants of the event will need to move freely in one of the largest metropolises in the world. In fact, the event was attended by approximately 10,500 athletes coming from 206 nations and the movements of millions of fans that the city will have to accommodate.
Hybrid Micromobility: The Alternative for Urban Transport
As an alternative to traditional long-distance vehicles, the hybrid systems They are also used in means of transport for the micromobility (i.e. mobility within the city limits): we are talking about hybrid muscular-electric vehicles (known by the acronym HEHV, which stands for Human-electric hybrid vehicle) like the electric scooters and the pedal-assisted bicycles.
There are also small means of transport that use only the battery, which fall into the BEV category (Battery Electric Vehicleor battery-powered electric vehicles). The latter are specifically designed for urban mobility and are widely used in large cities, where they can be used freely by booking the ride through the appropriate sharing app.
European Environment Agency
