Spain, Portugal invests $150m to make fuel cell or electric car by end of this year
Spain and Portugal are getting into the green car biz. The two countries are investing 150m EUROS into an effort to create a fuel cell or electric car project called Mobi-green. The governments hopes the partnership will mean new jobs and a prototype will be built by the end of the year. "We want to create the technology that will allow us to consume the least amount of gasoline possible," said Spanish Minister for Industry Joan Clos. "Our goal is to create an environmentally friendly car that can be produced with technology from Portugal and Spain,"is how Braz Costa, head of Portugal's CEIIA research center, put it.
Portugal's CEIIA will build the car along with Spain's CTAG. The funding will come from the private and public sectors. Mobi-green reminds me of other recent pushes from government and private companies like the Israeli Project Better Place and the Parisian Bertrand Delanöe.
[Source: TVNZ]
Reader Comments (Page 1 of 1)
Herkimer 12:15AM (2/01/2008)
I wish Dub-ya would have done something like this.
But that's America for you...all the resources you could need, and none of the leadership.
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Chris M 2:06AM (2/01/2008)
Hydrogen fuel cells and hydrogen storage is extravagantly expensive, and are less efficient than batteries. If they waste their money on the H2 hype, it won't displace much petrol use, as few could afford it.
If they want a technology that is more efficient, yet affordable, they should concentrate on battery electrics and plug-in hybrids.
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meme 2:27AM (2/01/2008)
I think the first step would be deciding on *which* they plan to use. Like Chris M, deciding between expensive (and -- little mentioned -- very inefficient, and thus eco-unfreidntly) hydrogen, or electric.
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antony 5:33PM (5/07/2008)
I have electric vehicles and was about to buy a hyfrogen fuel cell to charge them, BUT in Madrid (and Spain) there are NO charging points nor hydrogen point open to the public! The least they could do is pass a law to allow for charging points on request in parking garages where a person lives. I asked my landlord and he had a good laugh, never was the answer. Hydrogen plants: one in Spain and only the 5 hydro busses (gov.) are allowed to use it as they are unmetered!
Whats the point of affordable electric vehicles only avaliable to people with private garages to charge them (normally not in the city centre), as they are the ones least likely to use them.
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