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Kelvin Mace

(17,469 posts)
1. Hydrogen has one fundamental flaw
Fri Mar 27, 2015, 12:06 AM
Mar 2015

that this process does not solve, the amount of energy you need to make the hydrogen exceeds what you get out of it. At the moment it takes about 60kWh of electricty to make a kg of hydrogen. The only currently available to buy hydrogen vehicle I am aware of, the Hyundai Tuscon, gets about 47 miles from a kg of Hydrogen. For the same amount of electricty, my Leaf will go about 180+ miles.

Also, hydrogen fueling stations are VERY expensive and while many have been promised, few have been built. Meanwhile, electrical sockets are everywhere already and fast charger networks are already being built nationwide. 89% of American drive less than 35 miles a day, well within the 60-80 mile range of the current generation of battery electric vehicles on the market. And while the current new models cost $30K and up, a slew of the cars are coming off leases with low miles and steep discounts of 60% off the new price or higher.

If you need something with range, then the Chevy Volt is the answer since it will run for 35 miles off its battery before firing up its small gasoline generator to power the car.

Hydrogen does have some potential use for powering heavy trucks or even trains, but those uses are far down the road.

Meanwhile, in the next two years, Nissan is promising to double the Leaf's range (120-160 miles real world), Chevy has the 2nd gen Volt coming out with a 50 miles initial range, and are promising a 200 mile BEV in 2017. Tesla has also promised a 200+ mile range model with a sub $40K price tag in the same time frame.

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