A fuel cell vehicle (FCV) or fuel cell electric vehicle (FCEV) is an electric vehicle that uses a fuel cell, sometimes in combination with a small battery or supercapacitor, to power its onboard electric motor. Fuel cells in vehicles generate electricity generally using oxygen from the air and compressed hydrogen. Most fuel cell vehicles are classified as zero-emissions vehicles. As compared with internal combustion vehicles, hydrogen vehicles centralize pollutants at the site of the hydrogen production, where hydrogen is typically derived from reformed natural gas. Transporting and storing hydrogen may also create pollutants. Fuel cells have been used in various kinds of vehicles including forklifts, especially in indoor applications where their clean emissions are important to air quality, and in space applications. Fuel cells are being developed and tested in trucks, buses, boats, ships, motorcycles and bicycles, among other kinds of vehicles.
2021 Toyota Mirai
2018 Hyundai Nexo
Foton BJ6123FCEVCH-1 fuel cell bus in operation
1966 GM Electrovan
An electric vehicle (EV) is a vehicle that uses one or more electric motors for propulsion. The vehicle can be powered by a collector system, with electricity from extravehicular sources, or can be powered autonomously by a battery or by converting fuel to electricity using a generator or fuel cells. EVs include road and rail vehicles, electric boats and underwater vessels, electric aircraft and electric spacecraft.
Thomas Edison and George Meister in a Studebaker electric runabout, 1909
A charging station in Seattle shows an AMC Gremlin, modified to take electric power; it had a range of about 50 miles (80 km) on one charge, 1973
General Motors EV1 electric car (1996–1998), a subject of the film Who Killed the Electric Car?
A passenger train, taking power through a third rail with return through the traction rails