Yes, most fuel cell vehicles will also have a battery — for the reasons you cite. (There are other alternatives — e.g. hydrolyic or pneumatic accumulators, or flywheels — but, batteries are the most logical solution.) These batteries don’t have to be big to do the job (e.g. the Prius batteries are quite small, yet they are used for regenerative braking.
My point was that both battery-electric, and fuel-cell-electric vehicles are all-electric vehicles. Both are driven by electric traction-motors. A technical article should be more careful with terminology.
Yup. Too bad battery technology is still limited. Probably the best metrics are energy storage per unit volume, life, and operation across temperature. I am sure that weight is important too.
It would be interesting to do a comparison of energy of gasoline per unit volume vs batteries energy per unit volume. And weight.
Of course, you have to put the energy in the battery which means some kind of energy conversion process (nuke, hydro, coal, etc. distribution to stored charge) which includes efficiencies and losses. Thank you Tesla (not the car manufacturer)!
Gasoline is best because the energy is already present in the fuel and essentially free other than the extraction and refining costs.
Read that the energy/torque conversion (at the wheel) for an electric motor is much better than gasoline or diesel.
And last but not least, our current power grid and power production system is incapable of supplying the power required if everyone drove electric cars. A major upgrade of the power grid is needed costing billions. Important point: wind and solar won’t cut it so nukes are the best.