Larry Burns says H2 cars are ready, calls on government and energy industry to provide hydrogen supply
During a keynote speech at the National Hydrogen Association conference in Sacramento, CA, GM's VP for Research and Development declared automotive fuel cell technology ready. However he said it can't move forward without a supply of hydrogen to feed mass quantities of cars. Between General Motors, Daimler, Toyota, Honda and Ford, automakers have demonstrated that the technology works and is reliable. GM and Honda in particular are working aggressively to create fuel cell designs that can be mass produced at an affordable cost. The latest designs have improved efficiency, durability and greatly reduced requirements for catalyst materials. At the conference, Burns is stepping up the call for the energy industry and government to start implementing a fuel distribution system. Previous analysis done by General Motors has concluded that supplying upwards of ninety-five percent of the population would only require 12,000 hydrogen stations nationwide. That compares to 170,000 gas stations currently in operation. That number of stations placed at roughly two mile intervals in all the populated areas and twenty-five miles apart on major highways would be sufficient to supply the nation with hydrogen for transportation. The estimated cost of that would $10-15 billion or about 1/3 of ExxonMobil's profits for one recent quarter. Without this investment, the U.S. will get left behind.
[Source: Hydrogen Forecast]
Reader Comments (Page 1 of 2)
darius 8:30PM (4/01/2008)
great now all we need is to figure out how to economically manufacture all the hydrogen and how to finance $1 mil cars and we are all set :) Happy April 1st to everyone
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Luke 8:33PM (4/01/2008)
Call me when we've figured out how to mine the Oort cloud. Or Jupiter. Whatever.
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Peekoyle 8:56PM (4/01/2008)
is this an April Fools joke? ... seriously?
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Snowdog 9:07PM (4/01/2008)
GM has an interesting habit of backing the most useless inefficient technologies.
It is the largest proponent of E85 (boondoggle) and now hydrogen (future boondoggle).
It then talks smack on diesel and its one EV related product the Volt is quickly pricing itself out of public affordability. I doubt GM will kill the electric car this time, instead they will kill GM.
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fnc 9:40PM (4/01/2008)
Did the guy even give any figures for what a fuel cell to propel one of these cars (just the cell, forget the mechanicals) currently costs?
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BlackbirdHighway 9:47PM (4/01/2008)
So, I was on youtube watching the videos of the big EV rally outside last week's CARB meeting, and this lady gets up and starts talking about how she got her RAV4-EV six years, and she's been driving it all this time. She's covered 60,000 miles over six years, and HAS NOT BOUGHT ONE DROP OF GASOLINE IN SIX YEARS!
Let that sink in a bit. Imagine yourself not buying gasoline for six years. Just think about it. Visualize it.
People, the solution was at hand six years ago. It's not 15 to 20 years away. We don't need to spend 10 billion dollars of taxpayer money to get there. We already had it six freaking years ago! Enough with the H2 fantasy already!
(Actually, I'll admit, I still think H2 might be a good solution for aircraft. Batteries will probably always be too heavy for flight. But for ground transportion, EVs can do it!)
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Lad 10:15PM (4/01/2008)
BlackbirdHighway:
The hydrogen car is a red herring created by Big Auto and Big Oil to deflect public thinking and government funding away from the BEV. If you haven't figured it out yet, it's to the auto industry's advantage to slow up BEV marketing and to keep the public driving complicated, expensive, huge gasoline cars. The last thing they want is a disruptive technology like electric cars taking profits away from their ICEs.
If anyone hasn't watched "WHO KILLED THE ELECTRIC CAR?" I suggest it's worth your time.
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mike 11:39PM (4/01/2008)
Nothing spells Conspiracy like this Obvious Business Conspiracy.
More proof GM is nothing but a front organization for Big Oil. It's time to get a Democratic President and Congress and use the RICO act against these A**Holes.
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mike 11:50PM (4/01/2008)
This is laughable in the respect that SUDDENLY a ramp up on expensive hydrogen fuel cells is now possible, but, the hybrid power train Was and Is Just Too Expensive. BS from the Auto-Oil Industry.
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Mark 12:19AM (4/02/2008)
Hydrogen is just a way for Big Oil to keep in the loop once oil has run out.
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mike 12:34AM (4/02/2008)
All I can say to Larry Burns is If he's not getting a Substantial Kickback from Big Oil he's the Sucker of the Year.
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Altfuelguy 12:36AM (4/02/2008)
Didn't last week CARB argued that they needed to lower the 25,000 ZEV because the technology is NOT ready..blah..blah. Well the EV (Tesla) is in production and FCV (GM) is "ready", boy did the CARB folks got fooled big time!!!
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mike 12:36AM (4/02/2008)
Write your Congressman/person and DEMAND they refuse to pay for a Hydrogen Infrastructure!
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A.Brien 12:53AM (4/02/2008)
I approuve gm.
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Chris M 2:47AM (4/02/2008)
If by "ready" he means H2 cars that actually can be driven, well, they've been driveable for over 30 years.
If by "ready" he means H2 cars that are practical and affordable by someone other than billionaires or fiscally irresponsible governments, no way! H2 fuel cells are still far too expensive, and PEM membranes have a short lifespan, leading to high repair and maintenance costs. H2 storage is still extremely expensive and limited capacity, H2 ICE cars are plagued by high prices, low efficiency, short driving ranges, and high operating costs. H2 is currently more expensive than petroleum fuels, and will always be more expensive than electricity. The high cost of the raw materials needed to make fuel cells and H2 storage tanks assures that mass production techniques cannot bring down the cost enough to make it affordable anytime in the forseeable future.
Interesting that the cost of installing 12,000 H2 filling stations, $15 billion, is only a small fraction of the oil companies combined profits. So why haven't the oil companies invested some of their loot to build them? Easy, they want the governments to shell out all the money for construction, so if it fails they won't be out anything. If the impossible happens and H2 sales take off, they will sweep in, take them over, and rake up even more loot. Either way, Joe Q Public gets screwed.
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TX CHL Instructor 6:23AM (4/02/2008)
But... But... But... H2 is the PERFECT fuel... for people who can freely spend other people's money!
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phil easler 8:47AM (4/02/2008)
Wow and H2 cars only cost 1M and the fuel cell last a whopping 50K miles. Let see what fuel cell car is currently sitting on the moon? Oh, its electric battery vehicle not fuel cell.
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rgseidl 9:44AM (4/02/2008)
"Without this investment, the U.S. will get left behind."
By whom? Neither Europe nor Japan are seriously pushing hydrogen beyond the extent to which their own and US taxpayers are willing to fund the R&D.
Somehow I doubt Botswana will beat the US to the punch.
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jimn ahlstrom 9:54AM (4/02/2008)
Larry Burns take note: If you want to start selling your FC cars, why not have your GM dealerships equipped with the mobile/portable hydrogen fueling stations (severalcompanies sell these). They can be easily delivered to these dealerships and within 24 hours be fueling your FC cars. Nothing wrong with selling your FC cars and then having the dealership also selling the hydrogen to fuel them. Once you start, the big oil companies will see the handwriting on the wall and
waste little time in following suit. Granted, the dealership hydrogen fueling stations will not permit long distance travel but at least the FC cars can navigate within reasonable distances around a metro area.
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Noah 2:46PM (4/02/2008)
fuel cells definitely have their uses, even in some vehicles, but not for a while. We need to focus on EV's/PHEV's and more biodiesel for big trucks.
I can see Hydrogen replacing large trucks (including tractor trailers) diesels b/c electric drive is overpowered by how heavy weight really drains batteries. That is where PHEV could work, but Hydrogen may be better. Also, hydrogen fuel cells would be good for powering houses and military use too.
But for basic transportation, EV seems like the obvious. Way easy to setup trickle charge stations all over the city for cheap refill, and high voltage, fast-charge systems here and there (and along freeways). I want my electric car!
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