Honda president expects generally available fuel cell cars by 2018
Honda has already announced their plans to make a production version of the fuel cell powered FCX concept available to the public in limited quantities starting in 2008. Now in an interview with Kyodo News in Japan, Honda President Takeo Fukui has stated that he expects that fuel cell cars will be widely available on the market within ten years after the launch of the FCX. In order to make the fuel cells widely available at an affordable price, Fukui says that they still need to reduce the amount of catalytic noble metals in the stack, improve hydrogen storage, and reduce the cost and increase the availability of hydrogen production. The cost of the cars would have to come down to about one tenth of where they are today.[Source: Kyodo News - subscription req'd]
Reader Comments (Page 1 of 1)
Tim 5:06PM (12/29/2006)
HYDROGEN IS NOT GREEN! Water is. Hydrogen is a terribly inefficient energy carrier. It is most economically produced by splitting HYDROCARBONS like natural gas at 1/6 the cost of producing it via water electrolysis. The “Hydrogen Economy” is Big Oil’s giant SCAM http://www.oilcrash.com/articles/h_scam.htm In fact, “Hydrogen may be considered to be one of the MOST DESTRUCTIVE GASSES to escape into the atmosphere. It will destroy ozone in an IRREVERSABLE process, reduce oxygen levels and produce water vapor in the stratosphere.” http://www.ozone-depletion.com/. Hydrogen is one of the smallest and lightest elements, which means that it escapes easily. Consider hundreds of millions of tanks of this highly explosive gas leaking some of their destructive cargo directly into the atmosphere every time you fill them. You can’t clean that up as “easily” as an oil spill. We thought fossil fuels were bad! Spilled bio-diesel from algae http://www.autobloggreen.com/2006/12/28/solix-and-colorado-state-university-team-to-commercialize-algae/ (or electricity for that matter) is less toxic to the environment than sugar and won’t explode with a spark.
A terrorist’s dream is to have a giant potential BOMB such as a semi-trailer, container ship or tank farm of highly explosive gas such as LNG parked next to a juicy target. A container ship of this stuff has about the same energy as 55 Hiroshima type nuclear bombs. Are they (including Al “Green” Gore) worried? YOU BET! http://www.timrileylaw.com/LNG.htm
Reply
yes_i_am_an_american 5:57PM (12/29/2006)
I agree, hydrogen as it is currently supplied/generated is not green however in 10-15 years perhaps there will be a breakthrough that revolutionize the way we get our hydrogen.
Reply
CM 2:15AM (12/30/2006)
For the "hydrogen hiway" to ever succeed requires several improbable breakthroughs in hydrogen production, storage, transport, and more reliable fuel cells, and a dramatic drop in costs from the current half-million dollars to something barely affordable. It also requires persuading people to pay more for fuel.
Oh, it also requires persuading everyone to ignore alternatives that are cheaper and cleaner and more redily available, such as pluggable hybrids, lithium battery electrics, biofuels, PRT and dualmode auto transport systems.
Reply
Ken 9:04AM (12/30/2006)
I give Honda credit for exploring alternative energy sources but this article makes it sound like the hydrogen economy it here. It would be like people saying "We're all going to have electric cars!" when the EV1 was leased to the public.
Hydrogen may or may not be the future but to reduce our oild dependance and improve the environmnet NOW biofuels are a much more logical avenue.
Reply