The new Toyota Mirai–which is powered by hydrogen fuel cells–went on sale in Japan about 9 days ago, and is scheduled to become available in The US in late 2015.
Obviously, this technology can’t be successful until we have enough hydrogen fueling stations to support these vehicles, but given Toyota’s success with hybrid technology, I think that they have probably figured out how to make this other technology practical for automobiles.
Immediately, hydrogen comes from the very few pumps that offer it in the LA area. Now that Toyota is getting into it, new stations should pop up. According to fueleconomy.gov, Hyundai started producing a hydrogen fuel cell Tuscon for MY2015, also only available in the LA area.
Right! Hydrogen is not a prime source of energy; it has to be manufactured and that requires energy. The only way to make H2 without generating carbon is by electrolysis using electricity generated by water power or nuclear generated.
Using solar or wind to make hydrogen is prohibitively expensive.
The good thing about hydrogen fuel cells is there is no carbon in the exhaust, just water vapor.
I think the big fat deal (I’m sure that’s what you meant!) is that if hydrogen becomes available from a pump as gasoline is now, it would take a lot less time to fill the tank than recharge a battery.
Gasoline very easily could be selling for $1.50-$1.75 a gallon by July, 2015…This pulls the rug out from under “alternative fuels”…California will have a hard time enforcing its zero emissions mandate…unless they limit it to publicly and utility owned vehicles which is pretty much the case now…It’s easy spending other peoples money on zero-emissions vehicles…Lets see, they can squeeze the rental fleets too…
Toyota must be “on” to something. They pretty much own the hybrid market, and perhaps as other manufacturers eat into that segment with gas-powered hybrids they’re moving toward hydrogen. It’ll be interesting to watch the future roll out.
I share the skepticism. Back in 2008, when oil hit nearly $150 per barrel, and hydrogen started really getting discussed, the reading I did left me with the impression it was just a futuristic pipe dream.
Let’s see…expend some energy extracting the hydrogen, then some more energy to store (probably by chilling to some ungodly temperature) and transport it. Build an extremely expensive distribution system, figure out how to somehow build the fuel cell itself for under a hundred grand or so, get the thing to go more than maybe a hundred miles between fill-ups, and then last more than about 50K miles before replacement. And then there’s the matter of all this traffic constantly dribbling water all over the roads.
I’m working from memory here, and may have left some stuff out.
Apparently, though, these problems have been getting at least somewhat solved over the past 5 years.
Cafe requirements are one of the primary reasons for the move to hydrogen. Manufacturers receive credits for alternative fuels and advanced technologies. The way cafe is calculated is complex and selling a few hydrogen cars will offset the lower mileage of trucks and allow a manufacturer to meet cafe requirments.
Uh, I don’t get it. Electrolysis just requires electricity. Nuclear has been an extremely expensive power source in the US. Solar is already competitive with it, and getting cheaper all the time. Wind, I suspect, isn’t going to get much cheaper, but it may prove useful in some regions, but solar is a better long-term bet. Sunshine is free and abundant.
Biofuels don’t necessarily release carbon, either. When you grow a field of something, carbon is removed from the atmosphere. When you burn the fuel made from the crop that same carbon is released. I think our current use of corn is scandalous, but suspect some sort of biofuel will prove cost effective. Probably algae or bacteria of some sort grown in ponds or even tanks. For vehicles liquid fuels do make a lot of sense, though future battery technologies may be so good no one will need anything but a plug-in electric.
I think Steve is on to something. Toyota may have no intention of making any significant number of hydrogen cars, but like all manufacturers they play the “credits” game. This game is lucrative for manufacturers.