Report: Your hydrogen car won't be ready for at least 15 years
Jason Bateman will be pulling up to the red carpet in a hydrogen Beemer and Jamie Lee Curtis is rocking a hydro-Honda, but it'll likely be a while before you and I are cruising the strip in Hindenburg Specials.
A new report says that it will at take least 15 years for any auto manufacturer to bring a hydrogen fuel cell vehicle to the mass market. What's more, that estimate assumes government subsidies of around $55 billion dollars to help the project along.
The main obstacles to rapid adoption of hydrogen technology for cars are high cost and lack of an existing fueling infrastructure. It's estimated that fuel cell vehicles produced in low volumes probably cost around $1million to $2million each, which explains why they're being leased rather than sold outright.
What can we learn from the report? Well, if we want to get a handle on our energy/global warming crises, we're probably better off focussing on hybrids and plug-ins for the immediate future and looking at fuel cells as a long-term solution.
via [Discover]
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Reader Comments (Page 1 of 1)
7-20-2008 @ 8:48AM
Bill said...
Given that the first fuel cell was created in 1845 (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fuel_cells), I think that it is fair to say that we ought not hold our breaths for hydrogen cars. I don't much believe in political promotion of any alternative energy, not because I'm a fan of the oil companies, but because the reasons for the competitiveness of alternative propulsion systems are complex, and many technologies simply don't compete yet with the internal combustion engine and gasoline/diesel. Science is simply too complex for simplistic expectations and technology is therefore most efficiently regulated by Adam Smith's markets than by lawyers. Forcing auto companies to research these things when they are trying to compete with the products they have ensures steadily declining market shares. There are plenty of companies and technologies waiting in the wings for when their time comes.
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