Out Of The Horses Mouth – Fuel Cells Are Not The Answer
Hydrogen Fuel Cell technology is just not ready for main stream implementation, confirmed yet again by this Wall Street Journal article. Both GM and Toyota executives are turning away from their focus on fuel cells and toward readily available technologies like full electric cars and plug-in hybrids… also called range extended electric cars.
Since the driving range of full electric cars are limited by how much electricity their batteries can store and today’s batteries take hours to charge, auto makers are turning to mounting a small gasoline generator on board what would otherwise be a fully electric car. The first 40 or so mile you drive is 100% on battery power and then the gas motor kicks in to generate electricity and power the car. Since electric motors are high in torque the driving performance is comparable to a normal car. At night you simply plug the car in to top off the batteries. The electricity in your home is a far cheaper source of power than the gas generator can create. The overall carbon footprint is lower too.
GM hopes to launch the Chevy Volt by 2010 that leverages this technology. Toyota is also making strides in advancing their current technology to include plug in charging and longer range running on batteries only. If you’re considering a green car you might want to buy used for now and wait a couple years to see if GM, Toyota and others bring real plug-in hybrids to market. They would surely beat the current hybrids in efficiency at a similar price.
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[...] Car Sale Auction wrote an interesting post today onHere’s a quick excerpt Hydrogen Fuel Cell technology is just not ready for main stream implementation, confirmed yet again by this Wall Street Journal article. Both GM and Toyota executives are turning away from their focus on fuel cells and toward readily available technologies like full electric cars and plug-in hybrids… also called range extended electric cars. Since the driving range of full electric cars are limited by how much electricity their batteries can store and today’s batteries take hours to charge, au [...]
Wow, what a surprise (not!)to learn that GM and Toyota realize there is no market for selling 70k plus hydrogen fuel cell cars that have no readily available refueling options right now -and the Volt is pushed back yet again (hmmm)? Sounds like just one more way to tell the public that they refuse to change business as usual, when the technology like this http://www.physicslablh.com/futureDesign.htm could easily be brought to market today- if the big automakers were serious!