Fuel Cell Cars: Sooner or Later?
During a recent visit from my parents, I was out in the Camry with Dad, demonstrating how it ran and the conversation eventually wandered to fuel cells. He was under the impression that his next car might be powered by a fuel cell. I disagreed. I've been keeping an eye out for signs of progress and though there's been some promising developments, there hasn't been any indication that it's going to happen any time soon.
He uses this as an example. I did a bit of a double take. What's going on? 4 years to market? Where are they going to get the hydrogen?
I pointed him to the Popular Science article predicting what cars we'll be driving in 20 years. They predicted that Hydrogen powered fuel cells would account for only 2% of the market. These guys are about as pumped up on tech as anyone can be so for them to be skeptical means that it doesn't look good.
On top of that, Ballard Power announced that they're selling their automotive division to Ford and Daimler. Ballard retains the right to utilize that technology as it sees fit (buses seem high on its list). The annual savings? $15 million. Now, if fuel cell cars were right around the corner, wouldn't Ballard just try and stick it out?
Now this could just be a "dog and pony show" as Popular Science put it. And there's going to have to be more than 3 cities than have Hydrogen available to drivers to make this work. And the price? I haven't heard anything under 6 figures yet. If car manufacturers can't get that price down to under $30k, they're not going to sell too many of them. Econoboxes, hybrids and 100% electrics (new and conversions) are going to dominate the market for a long time.
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DED
He uses this as an example. I did a bit of a double take. What's going on? 4 years to market? Where are they going to get the hydrogen?
I pointed him to the Popular Science article predicting what cars we'll be driving in 20 years. They predicted that Hydrogen powered fuel cells would account for only 2% of the market. These guys are about as pumped up on tech as anyone can be so for them to be skeptical means that it doesn't look good.
On top of that, Ballard Power announced that they're selling their automotive division to Ford and Daimler. Ballard retains the right to utilize that technology as it sees fit (buses seem high on its list). The annual savings? $15 million. Now, if fuel cell cars were right around the corner, wouldn't Ballard just try and stick it out?
Now this could just be a "dog and pony show" as Popular Science put it. And there's going to have to be more than 3 cities than have Hydrogen available to drivers to make this work. And the price? I haven't heard anything under 6 figures yet. If car manufacturers can't get that price down to under $30k, they're not going to sell too many of them. Econoboxes, hybrids and 100% electrics (new and conversions) are going to dominate the market for a long time.
\_/
DED
Labels: cars, technology
posted by DED at 11:36 PM
7 Comments:
Hi ded,
Yep, this is a more likely future scenario.
Oops! This.
Definitely.
Healey's latest offering.
Thanks, Edgar. Much appreciated.
$300k/car.
3 cities with filling stations.
Yeah, it's got a ways to go.
Hi ded,
I'd be more concerned about where the hydrogen comes from. If they use natural gas it's hopeless. If they use water hydrolysis powered by wind it might catch on for buses and such. Hydrogen is so hard to handle too. Parts are expensive and they wear out, hydrogen induced cracking, explosive properties, it's odorless. Yikes, lead acid batteries are bad enough, can you imagine g-ma trying to fill up with the compressed stuff? Surely they don't mean to use self service at the filling stations? Egad.
Full service Hydrogen stations? Quite possible.
Right now, they're getting the hydrogen from natural gas. So while we'd still be contributing to CO2 emissions, the amount would be alot less. But if they sequester the carbon after splitting off the hydrogen, then it's not so bad.
Storing hydrogen is tough. It's so small it can fit through cracks that even oxygen and water can't get through.
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