Zero emission cars


Are consumers ready to buy hydrogen cars, to get that guilt-free, zero emission vehicle that car makers such as Honda, GM and BMW can actually make today, 2007?

Seems not.

Honda, according to Financial Times, was planning to sell the FCX Claria for about £50,000 ($103,000), but decided to lease because, it said, "cost is still an issue".

Hydrogen-powered vehicles are one of the most appealing new car technologies because they emit only water vapour. The cars - including Honda's new vehicle - are still years from massmarket viability because of technological hurdles, safety concerns and limited refuelling infrastructure.

No, I don't think this is the car of the future. In fact, I love trains, buses and - bicycles. As I walk to my train station in the morning, I see one driver in each car, in hundreds of cars, and I wonder why people don't like walking. Humans have walked for millenia. Get a clue. Commuting is sooo old hat.

Why is it that cities all over the World are still running fleets of smelly, old-style gasoline or diesel buses? Public taxes could quickly change that, through clever investment, if voters paid attention to new technology. Instead of "concept cars" I want to see "concept buses" and other novel ideas for 21st Century public transportation. Hydrogen bus - now there is a thought.



Having said that, I still think Honda's design is rather nice, even yummy. Almost as yummy as the Volvo ReCharge Concept (Swedish only) car developed at Volvo Concept and Monitoring Center (VMCC) in Camarillo, California (although it may not be ready until 2015, according to Ichiro Sugioka, project leader, who notes that top speed will be 160 km/h, with 9 second acceleration from 0-100km/h).

FT: Honda to put its zero-emission hydrogen car on roads next year

Japan Hydrogen & Fuel Cell Demonstration Project (English website)

Admission free
10:00 - 17:00/Closed: Saturdays, Sundays, and holidays
Get off at the Yokohama Karyoku Hatsudensho bus stop on City Bus #17, departing from the Tsurumi Station (JR) (Kanagawa Prefecture)

Comments

Pandabonium said…
Hydrogen is not an energy source, just a storage medium. Hydrogen does not exist in wells or by itself in any way in nature - it is always combined with other things. We have to separate it from those other elements by using energy. So where do we get hydrogen now? Mostly from natural gas - another limited resource.

It can be had from water by electrolysis, but that requires electricity. OK, so we use wind or solar to get the electricity, but the fact is that if we have electricity it is more efficient to store it in batteries than to convert it to hydrogen which we then use in (as yet very expensive and short lived) fuel cells.

Hydrogen cell vehicles are IMHO a scam which will make some corporations a whole hell of a lot of money, but will give us not much in return except a few exotic demo vehicles.

We need to get REAL and cut back on energy use over all, and that includes for transportation. The clock is running out. We don't have time for screwing around.
Martin J Frid said…
I'm afraid you are right and that would explain why companies are not exactly in a rush to start mass producing hydrogen cars - or buses as I suggested. Remember the Aichi Expo? They had a few demo buses on the grounds. I wonder where they are now.

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