I simulated being stuck in a 12 hour freezing traffic jam in an electic car

Assuming, for comparison, a V6 Toyota Highlander, approximately 0.5 – 0.7 gallons of gasoline burned per hour at idle, or 6 - 8.4 gallons of fuel burned in total. Fuel tank capacity is 17.9 gallons, so about 30%-50% would be consumed in 12 hours.

and if they're actually wearing winter clothes you don't really need to heat the cabin at all. I assume the problem in Virginia was that people jumped into their cars with nothing but a sweater, assuming they'd be quickly transferring between climate controlled environments. Every time you leave the house you should be dressing like you're going for a walk in that weather.

Not in the slightest. But, a candle can melt snow. And provide light, useful in emergencies.

Candles can apparently output close to 100W of heat. Why do you say it wouldn’t make a difference in a small space such as a car?

In the small space of a car, yes it is. Enough to heat the car so you don't freeze to death. It isn't going to be balmy, but you're likely in warm clothes, and it adds enough extra heat.

This is somewhat unobservant? Tesla sells a million EVs/year (and is on track to sell two million in 2022). A variety of Chinese electric bus manufacturers, in aggregate, sell ~60k battery electric busses annually. Electrical charging infrastructure is becoming ubiquitous (electric power is everywhere, from the lowly 120V outlet to the 300kw fast DC charger at your local business), while there is so little hydrogen infra we can safely round down to zero for our purposes. Finally, at the end of a battery pack’s life, it can be recycled (Redwood Materials, started by Tesla’s ex-CTO JB Straubel already has begun ramping production of anode copper foils [1] for, wait for it, Panasonic, Tesla’s US battery cell provider).

EVs have already won, having pulled ahead of combustion vehicles and hydrogen vehicles are still stuck at the starting line.

[1] https://www.redwoodmaterials.com/press/an-update-on-our-anod...

I think the future is EVs, but there will be a niche for EVs with on-board generators to extend the range out indefinitely. These already exist but they will look really different in the future. Maybe that fuel for the generator will be hydrogen.. but I doubt it, there’s no hydrogen infrastructure.

An EVs battery pack will generally last as long as the car. A common warranty is 80% capacity after 8 years, and degradation generally flattens out after losing the first 10%, so 16 year minimum lifetime is a reasonable expectation, and 20+ years seems likely. There are 10 year old Leafs with the original battery on the road right now, and that's pretty much a worst case scenario for an EV battery (older battery chemistry, no cooling, and low capacity meaning users cycle often between very high and very low charge)

EV battery packs are routinely reused for grid/industrial energy storage.

EV battery recycling seems to becoming profitable. It's a pretty ideal scenario for recycling (high volume of identical cells).

EV batteries won't be more of a waste problem than car lead acid batteries, one of the most recycled items in the world.

> All of the benefits of an EV and traditional ICE engines with none of the draw backs.

You won't have all the benefits of EV (low complexity, volumetrically efficient drivetrain).

If you're going to have a battery big enough that you can charge at home for daily driving, you're going to get an extremely costly vehicle.

Hydrogen is one battery breakthrough away from being dead for cars forever. If the cost is halved and range is doubled, the niche for hydrogen cars will be so tiny that hydrogen fueling stations will be unsustainable.

Hydrogen hybrid cars is essentially a solution that kills itself. Charging will always be cheapest, so you'll want to maximize charging over hydrogen fueling. It'll incentivize the construction of home charging, street side charging and fast charging at all kinds of shops, restaurants etc. Most people will drive pure BEVs, and those that have hydrogen hybrids might fuel a handful of times a year. Every time batteries improve, the niche for the hydrogen hybrids will decrease. It's a terrible economy to build hydrogen fueling stations in.

A hydrogen fueling station exploded near my home btw. I think eventually hydrogen will be completely safe. But it seems very likely that a few accidents like that will happen before then, which may kill any momentum hydrogen manages to build. Hydrogen explosions are scary, it can be heard for miles away.

Interpolation is usually fine, but extrapolation should pretty much never be trusted for engineering or science.

See: almost every attempt to scale up a small project.