Ford, Daimler, and Nissan partner to develop hydrogen vehicles.

[BrooklynBay]

http://www.vehicleservicepros.com/n...er&utm_medium=email&utm_campaign=VSP130122003

 

[Rick]

I hope it works out for them. Sounds like a very ambitious endeavor.

 

[TheGTkid]

Thumbs up!
I am totally on board with the idea, just gotta make it safe (hydrogen... hindenburg.. hydrogen... hindenburg)

 

[Anime]

Ford, Daimler, and Nissan are way behind the times and the only "developing" they are doing is in trying to come up with a slightly different fuel cell system then what's out there already, so they don't have to pay any licensing fees or royalties to the patent holders of the technology, or use as little of it as possible.

http://automobiles.honda.com/fcx-clarity/

 

[Rick]

Whatever it takes to get it into mass production. If licensing fees are too expensive, they have no other option other than to offer a product that's too expensive, like today's electric cars.

 

[Anime]

There aren't any mass production issues any more than there were with electric cars. There's just an unwillingness between the oil/energy companies and most motor vehicle manufacturers to move forward from the status quo and present anything other than an internal combustion or diesel engine powered by the same old gas and diesel.

They are overly concerned with posturing and trying to be the one who comes up with something magical that the other companies want and will have to license from them. It's a problem when too many companies try to do this and none of them actually come up with anything different, so it just prevents the technology from ever moving forward or even getting to market, because like a spoiled brat, if they can't have their way and be the "leader", they won't play and will just stick to what they've been doing for decades.

The real issue with vehicles powered by hydrogen fuel cels is the lack of availability of hydrogen fuel. It doesn't matter how many vehicles are produced or how great they are, if the fuel/energy companies won't provide the fuel on a nationwide basis like they do with gasoline and diesel. There's a catch-22 still going on with the oil/energy companies saying they need a market before they can provide the fuel, and the vehicle manufacturers saying they need the fuel to be available before they can produce and sell the vehicles. Good way to keep anything from happening.

It's all just a game to stretch it out as long as possible and try to garner as much good PR and free advertising as possible from "developing" the vehicles, without actually having them for sale.

 

[FIND]

There is a bit more to it than that. Fuel cells are VERY expensive to make because of the materials used in the catalysts. They are full of platinum and other rare earth components. Some of the more recent research has resulted in designs that require less of those materials, or less exotic materials like nickle-tin catalysts with very complicated lattices that are made on a microscopic scale. But these are all still expensive. I think right now, most estimates put the cost of a hydrogen car at around $100,000 a piece if they were mass-produced. Auto manufacturers never release cost figures for their hydrogen vehicles, because they don't want to lose public support for development when people see how expensive they are, but the estimate for the cost of each Honda Clarity produced is around $300,000. Though, they aren't mass produced, and neither are the fuel cells.

It will take quite a bit of development and advancement to this technology before it is even close to something that would be viable for consumers.

Of course, your point about the catch-22 of selling and fueling hydrogen powered vehicles is spot on though. There will be nowhere to fuel up a hydrogen car, so no one will buy them. No one will sell hydrogen at pumps because there are no hydrogen cars. The only thing that could ever put hydrogen cars on the road in this country would be MASSIVE investments by energy companies, or some type of government incentive to build the infrastructure.

Hydrogen cars have always been little more than a distraction to keep people from thinking manufacturers aren't trying harder to save the world or creating more efficient vehicles.

 

[BrooklynBay]

It looks like Hyundai is already ahead of the game: http://www.popsci.com/cars/article/2013-03/first-factory-produced-hydrogen-cars-roll-out