Forget Lithium, the Auto Industry is Betting on Hydrogen

Innovators are constantly trying to create a longer-lasting, more efficient, cheaper battery. The battery market is estimated to jump to a $120 billion dollar industry by 2019, but there's a serious battle raging between the red-hot lithium-ion battery makers, and a growing amount of companies looking to produce hydrogen cell batteries.

Naturally, Elon Musk is publicly against hydrogen batteries, since they're less-efficient than the lithium-ion rechargeable batteries used in Tesla's vehicles.

The automobile industry however, is a different story...

13 different automobile and energy companies are pushing hydrogen use and production, putting a combined amount of $1.2 billion into hydrogen --and these aren't small companies either, I'm talking about big names like Honda, BMW, and Toyota.

You see, the auto industry's gripe against rechargeable batteries is that even though electric cars can last for quite a distance (currently about 335 miles) without recharging, they do eventually have to be recharged, which takes about 30 minutes.

The auto industry is betting that most consumers won't want to have to find a charging station (which are not readily available) and sit for 30 minutes to charge their cars, when filling up the tank once after about 360 miles (using hydrogen cells) will take a max of 5 minutes.

While Musk might laugh at those investing in hydrogen, I think the auto industry has the better view of the average consumer than he does... and I can say that I'd always pick a five minute stop over thirty.

To read more about the auto industry's move into hydrogen, read the CNBC article here.