I wonder when after the 3 year lease is up, when Honda takes back the cars and crushes them, will there be a sensational film made called "Who Killed the Hydrogen Car?"
IMO the only viability of hydrogen used in personal vehicles will be as a mileage booster.
They've been doing this for some time on tractor/trailers, where they have an onboard hydrogen generator powered by the main diesel engine. You pour water into the tanks and as you drive hydrogen is generated, then injected into the engine. This improves the fuel mileage a remarkable amount.
No hydrogen is stored onboard, therefore greatly reducing the risk of hydrogen.
Storage of hydrogen is risky, expensive and cumbersome. It doesn't make sense for a mass produced, practical passenger car to employ this method.
* There are things to consider as mentioned above before hailing this as THE car of the future.
Energy production: With all the wind turbines on the ocean, it's also damaging to the environment, the aqua marine sea life, birds, etc.
Energy STORAGE X! AT EVERY STAGE! It takes energy to keep it cool & liquid! During transportation, shipping, highly specialised containers & vehicles.
Then it must be kept cooled & compressed INSIDE the car itself! Question? What happens when you go away on vacation & the battery dies? The hydrogen expands, leaks, KABOOM!
Imagine a multiple car pile up on the freeway? The rescue team will need second thoughts about how to assess the situation.
Laptops are already exploding! Imagine surrounding them with HYDROGEN???
A scientist told me THE MOST ENVIRONMENTALLY FRIENDLY THING YOU CAN DO IS DRIVE YOUR CAR INTO THE GROUND due to all the energy inputs involved.
Now if we can only have an unbiased, non-political debate about the most efficient energy source?
Also, I would love to see these cars tested on taxi fleets in Siberia, Finland & Canada in -50 Celcius!
@CARBONFIBER: You brought up the most important reasons why straight hydrogen is not a plausible power source for the cars of tomorrow.
You'll never get straight talk on what makes the most economic and environmental sense.
Of course maintaining your existing car and driving it for decades is far more friendly to the environment than buying a new "eco" car every few years.
But try and tell that to the Hybrid Marketing Team.
The Honda Clarity does prove that there is a viability of Hydrogen car technology, with a caveat. The infrastructure will need to be upgraded to handle these vehicles.(again a 5-10 year proposition if we have forward thinking people in power to approve and create the infrastructure..and that is sadly a big if) Second, as James May glossed over is that it is pretty difficult to separate Hygrogen for using it propulsion and that technology is prohibitively expensive right now.
The problems with purely electric vehicles is the current limitations/reliability/service cycles/costs of the batteries. I am also concerned in how the batteries of say a Tesla would fare in real world driving in the Northeast with its associated temperature extremes. Would the service range of a Tesla (220 miles ideal) drop drastically in extreme cold climates? Again, an infrastructure needs to be in place to accomodate electrics. And if a purely electric vehicle runs out of juice, there is no real quick way to recharge them?
There is some research for a hybrids using capacitors instead of batteries for accelaration assistance and this seems probable (currently prohibitively expensive)
I really do not know the answer as to what will supplant gas/diesel vehicles in the future. However, the technology will have to offer the same benefits as current vehicles do.
@danio3834: You already are surrounded by ICEs (Internal Cumbustion Engines). It's not like present cars aren't balls of rolling explosions. Cars don't run on fluffy bunnies.
@A3rd.Zero: Right. There aremajor differences between the stnadard ICE driven cars of today and straight hydrogen powered ones.
The difference is in the storage of fuel. Hydrogen is far more volatile than gasoline therefore requiring far more safety precautions. The storage cells are expensive and cumbersome, making them rather redundant for practical passenger car use.
Hydrogen is one of the most dangerous things we could fuel our cars on, there are far better alternatives.
@damnelantraâ„¢: Aside from the storage tank issue, it should not be too hard or costly. As I mentioned in my comment above, BMW is already doing it with their 7 series prototypes.
@dwegmull: the last i heard about the bmw was it is a conventional engine made to run off hydrogen. what im interested in is having the fuel cells along with the electric motor. but keeping all the fun suspension and other things that make current good cars good.
kudos for honda to build the FCX, but i doubt it will handle like a s2k.
I loved Jay pandering to the British audience by saying "petrol" and "car park" instead of "gas" and "parking lot".
As promising as this technology is, how long will it take for hydrogen pumps to show up everywhere? It's not that convenient if you can only drive it within a 100 mile radius of the only hydrogen pump in the country.
@combat chuck: Jay writes a column for the Times (of London, UK). I've read a couple of them: they written in English English (as opposed to US English)... I tend to switch back and forth myself depending on whom I'm talking with.
@combat chuck: Even better when the sports cars he referred to were all ancient British models...Healey, MG, Sprite. As if the Brits didn't know that other countries made sports cars.
@ptmeyer84: We wouldn't want to show the world that GM can be as tech savvy as Honda. Come on! In all fairness, I believe its the fact that the Clarity is an actual production car.
@eddiecoaster: BMW took a different approach to hydrogen than the others: they burn it directly in the engine. The prototype 7 series has two tanks (gas and hydro) and can switch fuel on the fly...
The only problem is I don't want to drive a Clarity most of the time. I like driving a car that is entertaining and involving everywhere I go, not just on the weekends.
@jbownsabmw but still wants GM to survive: The point was - if most people are driving Clarities, you'll be able to; if EVERYONE keeps trying to drive gas-powered vehicles, you might not be able to.
12/18/08
12/18/08
So while hydrogen will provide use with a more sustainable source of fuel, it doesn't do much about Global Warming.
12/18/08
At least I hope they will before everything we hold near and dear is regulated out of existence.
12/17/08
They've been doing this for some time on tractor/trailers, where they have an onboard hydrogen generator powered by the main diesel engine. You pour water into the tanks and as you drive hydrogen is generated, then injected into the engine. This improves the fuel mileage a remarkable amount.
No hydrogen is stored onboard, therefore greatly reducing the risk of hydrogen.
Storage of hydrogen is risky, expensive and cumbersome. It doesn't make sense for a mass produced, practical passenger car to employ this method.
Why is hydrogen risky? Hindenburg.
12/17/08
Energy production: With all the wind turbines on the ocean, it's also damaging to the environment, the aqua marine sea life, birds, etc.
Energy STORAGE X! AT EVERY STAGE! It takes energy to keep it cool & liquid! During transportation, shipping, highly specialised containers & vehicles.
Then it must be kept cooled & compressed INSIDE the car itself! Question? What happens when you go away on vacation & the battery dies? The hydrogen expands, leaks, KABOOM!
Imagine a multiple car pile up on the freeway? The rescue team will need second thoughts about how to assess the situation.
Laptops are already exploding! Imagine surrounding them with HYDROGEN???
A scientist told me THE MOST ENVIRONMENTALLY FRIENDLY THING YOU CAN DO IS DRIVE YOUR CAR INTO THE GROUND due to all the energy inputs involved.
Now if we can only have an unbiased, non-political debate about the most efficient energy source?
Also, I would love to see these cars tested on taxi fleets in Siberia, Finland & Canada in -50 Celcius!
When does the Stig take it on the track?
12/18/08
You'll never get straight talk on what makes the most economic and environmental sense.
Of course maintaining your existing car and driving it for decades is far more friendly to the environment than buying a new "eco" car every few years.
But try and tell that to the Hybrid Marketing Team.
12/17/08
12/17/08
Hmmm
There's no intelligent reason to distance yaself from a Front driver.
Front drive, is efficient, compact and aerodynamic.
12/18/08
12/17/08
The problems with purely electric vehicles is the current limitations/reliability/service cycles/costs of the batteries. I am also concerned in how the batteries of say a Tesla would fare in real world driving in the Northeast with its associated temperature extremes. Would the service range of a Tesla (220 miles ideal) drop drastically in extreme cold climates? Again, an infrastructure needs to be in place to accomodate electrics. And if a purely electric vehicle runs out of juice, there is no real quick way to recharge them?
There is some research for a hybrids using capacitors instead of batteries for accelaration assistance and this seems probable (currently prohibitively expensive)
I really do not know the answer as to what will supplant gas/diesel vehicles in the future. However, the technology will have to offer the same benefits as current vehicles do.
12/17/08
Again, Mercedes has been running a fleet of hydrogen buses since 2004 all over Europe, and setting up fueling stations. Not so in the jerkwater US.
12/18/08
12/17/08
12/17/08
12/17/08
12/17/08
The difference is in the storage of fuel. Hydrogen is far more volatile than gasoline therefore requiring far more safety precautions. The storage cells are expensive and cumbersome, making them rather redundant for practical passenger car use.
Hydrogen is one of the most dangerous things we could fuel our cars on, there are far better alternatives.
12/17/08
12/17/08
12/17/08
12/17/08
12/17/08
12/17/08
12/17/08
Sure thing - just stick a setup like the one in this link into the back of your El Camino: [www.autobloggreen.com]
12/17/08
kudos for honda to build the FCX, but i doubt it will handle like a s2k.
12/17/08
12/17/08
As promising as this technology is, how long will it take for hydrogen pumps to show up everywhere? It's not that convenient if you can only drive it within a 100 mile radius of the only hydrogen pump in the country.
12/17/08
12/17/08
12/17/08
12/17/08
What about them? BMW makes a Hydrogen 7 series, too.
12/17/08
12/17/08
12/17/08
12/17/08
Interesting, but not entertaining.
Now show me a video of the FCX doing a burnout, then I'm all eyes/ears.
12/17/08
12/17/08
12/17/08
12/17/08