French researchers believe that focusing efforts on hybrid electric vehicles (HEVs) that run on both petrol and stored electricity will hinder the development of more environmentally sustainable designs like fuel-cell powered vehicles.

Hybrid alternative – the new hydogen-powered Lifecar - produces little noise and only water vapour from its exhaust

Research leader Jean-Jacques Chanaron, research director within the French National Centre for Scientific Research (CNRS), doubts that the adoption of HEVs will be sustainable for the future. Worryingly the latest trends suggest that manufacturers are moving in that direction even though there is no major profitability in the business.

Chanaron  said: “The complexity and high cost of the hybrid technology is also playing against itself. There is a huge strategic dilemma for the key players of the automotive industry where a mistake in technology decision-making might turn even a big player into a take-over candidate.”

Chanaron believes that manufacturers are misinformed as three major US firms – GM, Ford and Chrysler – recently pushed the US government for financial and political backing for hybrids as a long term solution to climate change.
The group’s results agreed with previous predictions that fuel-cell technology will not be viable on a large scale until at least 2025, which is too late in some climate change models. However Chanaron and his colleagues believe that using unsustainable HEVs as a stop-gap solution may slow the development of truly sustainable designs.

“The next five years will provide industry observers with more accurate trends and success or failure factors,” said Chanaran.

By Lelia Sattary