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I feel the same way about hybrids......very expensive and complicated system required to integrate an ICE and an electric-motor. All that weight, parts, fuel sources, software, hardware....on and on.
^ agree...People say it is clean until they learn about the process of obtaining hydrogen, plus it cost around 90 bucks to fill a tank...not that cheap for the customer either. yes they get a debit card from the car company to use on fuel. but still looking in the long run
Hydrogen fuel cells will just be a footnote in the history books. Electric cars are already fine for most people (and PHEVs are completely fine for ALL people) and don't require a huge overhaul to our existing infrastructure.
There are huge advantages to fuel cells.
1) it’s easy to make hydrogen. You can cook it up using solar panels if you want a green version.
2) it’s portable. 300-400 mile range fits in the same space your gas tank is already in and refill time is similar to conventional fuel.
3) it’s scalable. Since throwing more batteries at bigger vehicles makes them heavier and thus need more batteries. Fuel cells can keep the weight down dramatically. Space Shuttles created electricity using fuel cells. If they had used today’s lithium ion batteries it wouldn’t have gotten off the ground. As a bonus, the astronauts drank the water they created.
4) it doesn’t degrade range at low temperatures like a BEV does.
The batteries on a fuel cell are very small compared to a BEV.
For most applications like driving back and forth to work for a 20 mile round trip, a fuel cell isn’t practical nor necessary (neither is a 300 mile battery). For a semi truck or cruise ship however, fuel cells make a lot more sense.
1) Much easier to make electricity, given the infrastructure currently in place (and the massive capital required to change to hydrogen producers)
2) So is electricity, through the established, needed grid
3) Meh, Tesla has proven this wrong
4) Fair enough
So why does nobody have a Honda or Toyota (or any manufacturer) fuel cell vehicle, even though they have been in development for 20+ years?
1) Much easier to make electricity, given the infrastructure currently in place (and the massive capital required to change to hydrogen producers)
2) So is electricity, through the established, needed grid
3) Meh, Tesla has proven this wrong
4) Fair enough
So why does nobody have a Honda or Toyota (or any manufacturer) fuel cell vehicle, even though they have been in development for 20+ years?
1) where there is a market there is a way. Everybody in the world got LTE smart phones in less than 10 years. It’s amazing what you can do to meet the needs of the market.
2) a battery does not replace a gas tank’s size for the same range. Try powering a 747 with a battery and let us know how much room you have left for people
3) Tesla hasn’t proven jack. The mega charger stations for semi trucks don’t exist, and nobody is divulging range with a full load in cold weather against headwinds. EV companies like to advertise maximum range as opposed to the far more important “minimum” range due to marketing purposes. If Elon promises anything, always assume it’s BS until it’s actually released and makes money.
Nobody has a Toyota or Honda fuel cell vehicle because:
1) fuel cells are a terrible application for passenger cars. Hydrogen semis however are a far better application. https://nikolamotor.com/one
2) they’re ugly as sin
3) nobody outside of California has hydrogen infrastructure. It would be impractical to replace every gas station with a hydrogen station, however it’s entirely practical to add hydrogen to truck stops, or distribution centers, shipping terminals, etc.
Honda and Toyota are however getting data from their fuel cell programs. At this point they’re not intended to be profitable.
With hydrogen it’s actually possible to reduce ocean acidification from CO2 by creating hydrogen. The only energy emissions are from whatever is creating the electricity that would be required for EV charging anyway. https://www.google.com/amp/s/cleante...-seawater/amp/
When I first started hearing about hydrogen fuel for automobiles, one of the things mentioned was that existing internal combustion engines could be modified to use hydrogen for their fuel. In particular, all of the high-performance engines from the '50's-'70's, which were pretty bad polluters, could be run on it.
Is that the case?
I'm sure that it wouldn't be a super-easy conversion, but would it be possible at all?
pfff.
"The cheapest and easiest method of producing hydrogen is to extract it from methane (natural gas), though this process also produces carbon dioxide. " "A far cleaner method of manufacturing hydrogen is through the electrolysis of water, which produces hydrogen and oxygen." expensive.
" transporting hydrogen will be necessary, and transporting any fuel requires sticking it in big trucks (and potentially ships), which would once again need to be emissions-free for the process to be clean and carbon-free."
"Storing hydrogen efficiently, either on the back of a truck or underground at a service station, requires the hydrogen produced by electrolysis to be converted from a gas to a liquid, either by compressing the gas into a liquid or cooling it to liquid form. What does all this require? Yep, more energy."
Only these are enough to turn me off, and that's the tip of the iceberg
You forgot the obvious. Hydrogen, when mixed with oxygen in the air is VERY explosive!
I feel the same way about hybrids......very expensive and complicated system required to integrate an ICE and an electric-motor. All that weight, parts, fuel sources, software, hardware....on and on.
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