[POLL] Would you drive a hydrogen-powered vehicle? - Fuel Economy, Hypermiling, EcoModding News and Forum

SVOboy · 08-07-2009, 01:55 PM

Yes, no, maybe so? Why or why not?

Matt Herring · 08-07-2009, 02:06 PM

I voted "unsure/time will tell" but...

Would I drive one...absolutely. The "but" comes in with how far along the technology is at the time, how much the car costs, availability of fueling stations, etc it offers. Obviously, I'm not going to drop $30k+ on a new hydrogen car if it's not worth the money but show me a hydrogen car priced well with a solid fueling station infrastructure and I'm game.

shovel · 08-07-2009, 02:21 PM

I wouldn't drive a car for which there are no/limited refueling stations.

The places I drive for work & play I sometimes have to carry a fuel can because there often aren't even gasoline stations, I couldn't imagine having to cruise around the desert in search of a hydrogen station.

Ideally I would want a steam powered car... then anything that burns is my fuel. how about a diesel/gas/ethanol/methanol/hydrogen/cng/lpg/electric/solar/acetone/SVO/bellybuttonlint powered car eh?

Daox · 08-07-2009, 02:23 PM

Not unless they showed me that its a viable form of energy. H2 does not occur anywhere naturally that is harvestable. You have to use energy to create H2. So, unless I could see numbers side by side that said it takes less energy/carbon to make and use X amount of H2 vs gas I'm not on board.

SVOboy · 08-07-2009, 02:23 PM

Yes, I'm also reluctant. However, I remember how people talked about how hybrids were unproven, etc etc and it turned out to be an unnecessary worry.

NiHaoMike · 08-07-2009, 02:25 PM

Hydrogen would be nice if they could make it practical enough. Mainly, they need to find a better way to make hydrogen. Maybe they could use rectifying antennas near existing radio stations to power the electrolysis of water. Using a source of energy that is currently being wasted sounds like a great idea.

roflwaffle · 08-07-2009, 03:20 PM

Making it is just too inefficient. It'll be about double the cost of the electricity used to make it, so that's double whatever I would pay anyway. On top of that, available fuel cells just aren't cost competitive w/ available battery tech, even if they are lighter. Right now, storage costs for a pack that can degrade to 50% capacity, for instance in a PHEV like the Volt, are at ~10-15c/kWh. Until fuel cells can approach that, they're dead in the water IMO.

robbiewt · 08-07-2009, 04:07 PM

I would like to drive one. But I don't know if I would want one because of how inefficient hydrogen production is. And the filling stations will have to be much more convenient. So far there is one in D.C. that is within driving distance of my house.

cfg83 · 08-07-2009, 05:24 PM

SVOboy -

Quote:

Originally Posted by SVOboy

Yes, I'm also reluctant. However, I remember how people talked about how hybrids were unproven, etc etc and it turned out to be an unnecessary worry.

I said no. Hybrids still have a gasser infrastructure. I like the idea of the Amory Lovins pie-in-the-sky model where cars would refuel at work and run during peak load to feed electricity back to the grid, but that requires a sea change that I don't see on the near horizon.

CarloSW2

chuckm · 08-07-2009, 06:08 PM

I said time will tell. The infrastructure would cost many, many billions. If you use centralized h2 manufacturing, you'll be transporting how many hundreds of millions of cubic feet of h2 on the highway every day? Safe storage is also an interesting issue. Perhaps on-site/on-demand production at filling stations would be better, but the initial capital investment for the filling station owners would be huge. Mom-and-pop filling stations wouldn't be able to do it. HOWEVER, if some new technology comes along, making either the on-site/on-demand production cheap and easy or eliminate the safety issues with transport and storage, then I can see it happening. And I'd have no qualms about driving an H2 car.