Toyota Is Going to Sell a Hydrogen Car Globally in 2015

[solarhydrocan]

Peter Z. Scheer Truthdig Posted on Jan 6, 2014
http://www.truthdig.com/eartotheground/item/toyota_is_going_to_sell_a_hydrogen_car_globally_in_2015_20140106

While competitor Honda has been tinkering with Fuel Cell Vehicles for ages without putting one up for sale, Toyota just announced that it’s going to commercialize the future of driving on a worldwide scale in just one year.



Like the Honda FCX Clarity, the Toyota Fuel Cell Vehicle (FCV) uses basic chemistry and high technology to turn compressed hydrogen and oxygen into electricity. The only waste product is water vapor. Toyota says its prototype has a range of 300 miles before it needs refueling, which takes less than five minutes.

Tesla founder Elon Musk recently said, “Fuel cell is so bullshit.” But the technology is actually quite promising. Electric cars such as those made by Tesla have been held back by the slow pace of innovation in battery technology. It typically takes electric cars hours to recharge, and range is limited. Musk’s Tesla has come up with numerous schemes to circumnavigate those problems, but fuel cell cars, which have their own power plants, don’t have such issues.

Here in Southern California, where Honda allows 200 Clarity cars to be leased a year, we already have a network of hydrogen refueling stations. It’s easy for drivers to wrap their minds around that concept, because it mirrors the fossil fuel network we already have. There’s no need to install special equipment in your garage or at work. And it allows private industry an opportunity to buy into the future....MORE

Even better:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hydrogen_storage
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hydride

[Countdown_3_2_1]

1. This is the best thing I've seen in years!

I know the first models will be prohibitively expensive...but this is the future!
Hydrogen is the next step in engine design. I'm all up for this.

If I had cash I would invest in fuel cells! I cannot convey how much I love this technology!

[solarhydrocan]

2. Exactly. It's a game changer. This could make electric cars obsolete

and look at all that water, which is fuel (H20):



You can make Hydrogen *in your garage* from *water* with electrolysis. Power the electrolysis with solar or wind and it's FREE!

Shell Hydrogen station in Torrance CA

[Fumesucker]

3. A fuel cell vehicle *is* an EV, it runs on electricity not a heat engine

The fuel cell is just another sort of battery as far as the rest of the car is concerned, although regeneration is probably difficult or impossible.

Pretty much the rest of the technology in the car is the same beyond the source of electricity.

[solarhydrocan]

4. Yes but this guy uses hydrogen as gas

And makes it himself from solar- so it's free.
~400 miles range on a piston engine.
The exhaust is water.

The key is hydride. A nation that can build a nuclear bomb can make lots of hydride.

[Fumesucker]

9. The thing about engine powered cars is that they're trying to emulate an EV

Smoother shifting transmissions, computer controlled clutches and so on are trying to give the same feeling of seamless torque you get naturally from an electric motor. A hundred plus years of piston engine auto development to get to electric motor feel and they still ain't there yet.

Why go through all the trouble when you can just have an electric motor in the first place?

[bananas]

10. It has a battery for regeneration and extra power during acceleration

See post #8 below.

[herding cats]

5. Toyota says they expect more sales in the US than previously planned.

Toyota Ups Orders for Hydrogen-Powered Car in US

Toyota said Monday that it expects to sell more hydrogen-powered electric cars in the U.S. than previously planned.

The car, which Toyota calls FCV for now, uses hydrogen as fuel for a battery and emits only water vapor as exhaust. Toyota said the car will go on sale in the U.S. in 2015. Rival automakers Hyundai and Honda have also said they'd start selling cars with that technology in the U.S. that year.

At the International CES, the technology industry's annual gadget show in Las Vegas, the Japanese automaker said it will focus on selling cars in California at first.

Bob Carter, senior vice president of automotive operations for Toyota Motor Sales U.S.A. Inc., said the U.S. branch of Toyota had recently increased its request for vehicles to sell in the U.S. market. He said that a 95 percent cut in production costs from the initial prototype would help Toyota make fuel cell cars that are "a reasonable price for a lot of people."

Toyota Motor Corp. has promised to sell its fuel cell cars for $50,000 to $100,000, aiming for the lower end of the range.
http://abcnews.go.com/Technology/wireStory/toyota-bumps-hydrogen-powered-car-us-2015-21439673

It's still out of my price range, but it's a nice start. I'm excited!

[bananas]

8. So this is a hybrid, using fuel cell and battery instead of gasoline and battery

http://abcnews.go.com/Technology/wireStory/toyota-bumps-hydrogen-powered-car-us-2015-21439673

The car, which Toyota calls FCV for now, uses hydrogen as fuel for a battery

http://www.toyota.com/fuelcell/

The same hybrid technology at the heart of the Prius but with hydrogen and fuel cell stack.

[herding cats]

11. Yes, that's exactly right.

It's a nice first step. The devil will be in the details of what is used to create the energy to convert the hydrogen which the car needs I would think. Wind and solar would be ideal, but if the suppliers are using a fossil fuel like natural gas to get the hydrogen it would seem to not be so good.

[Egalitarian Thug]

6. By all means, we should definitely go for another dead-end technology that serves

to maintain the parasites' control and money extraction scheme intact. Elon Musk is a dick, but he's totally right on this.

[solarhydrocan]

7. If you can make hydrogen in your garage

(with your solar panels-for free) and then fill your car's gas tank with it-

how is that "maintaining the parasites control and money extraction scheme"?

If you just spend 5 minutes on the video above with the tanks you will see.

[Egalitarian Thug]

12. As a big fan of alternatives and something of a motor head myself, I love the idea.

The performance alone would be enough for me to want one, but there is one insurmountable problem.

In-home electrolysis and compression systems in the garages of people that are perplexed by four-way stop signs, that can't think to check the chamber when handling a firearm... What could possibly go wrong?

So, three or four idiots kill themselves and/or their families, friends or neighbors, and it suddenly becomes clear that a safe and professional industrial system is required for the good of the public, so we must of course allow our good friends and campaign contributors in the fossil fuel refinery and distribution systems to handle this for us.

It's just another "someday soon" distraction/diversion. None of the major players in fossil fuels nor most of the other industries connected to automobiles want this trend toward electric to continue, it has and will continue to erode their entire power base.

Meanwhile, battery technology is rapidly advancing and completely new emerging models of automobile manufacturing and technology have already ensured that none of the Big Automakers or their dealerships will exist in their present forms in another decade or two. We've already seen the first examples of the shenanigans they will play trying to limit or capture and retain customers through cross-brand incompatibility with the electrics, why do you think it would be any different with hydrogen?