Automotive

cazalea
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Well, Fuel Cell Vehicles are "new" in one sense

But the manufacturers like Honda, Toyota, Mercedes-Benz, BMW, etc have been working on them for decades. The trouble is they have too many constraints right now.

They have to meet safety standards while hauling around two tanks of 10,000 psi hydrogen. They have to make a decent car, but not too luxurious that it offends the Greens who will buy them. They need performance enough to get out of the way of a truck, but not enough so the range suffers. Etc, etc.

The sales lady said the dealership rented a hydrogen fuel compressor for a few months - it was on a semi-trailer and cost them $4000 a month and only got to 5000 psi which meant the cars took hours to fill.

Hydrogen fuel is not free but I don't know the ratio of energy->in to energy->out versus batteries. I'm pretty sure you might be able to out-drive the Mirai fuel cell generating capacity with a heavy load, steep hill and severe climate. Would it slow almost to a crawl like my Honda Insight does when its battery is exhausted? I hope not.

My name is still on the list (along with 25 others in my area) until year-end when the local hydrogen station is scheduled to come online.

Mike



This message has been edited by cazalea on 2016-07-22 18:43:13