This is why "More car than electric" is a great tag line.

 

"Of course, AVL makes no mention of the possibility that owners could be inconvenienced in their search for a hydrogen supply, nor does it note pricing or specs for the FCC. "


Of course this hydrogen EREV is a silly concept because we have no hydrogen infrastructure. I think a quick charge battery charger would be easier, cheaper and far more efficient, if we were going to start from scratch.

Why not just use NG instead? It can run in some fuel cells, can easily be stored and easily piped to critical gas stations (like on Interstate highways).

There are two more flaws with the HEREV:

1) Hydrogen is extremely hard to store for long periods of time due to the pressure needed and the very small molecule size.
2) The cost for this rarely used system is beyond astronomical.

It would be far better to throw in a small diesel and a tank full of used veggie oil!

Anyway, the hydrogen car will never be competitive with the EV because it's much less efficient and much more mechanically complex and expensive.

Now if we get some great nanotech breakthrough then we can talk. Until then, no way.

Note: I still support the research of hydrogen and fuel cells. They may find some niche market for some applications, passenger cars not likely being one of them.

 

Jason, care to make a prediction about when hydrogen fuel cell vehicles will have more than 1% share of new vehicle sales?

 

pdt,

To quote Clayton Christensen, it is not only unknown, it is unknowable. The huge factors in FCV adoption are:

1) ICE alternative - gasoline prices, regulations making ICE's expensive or not fun to drive, success of alcohol / natural gas / hydrogen ICE alternatives
2) EV alternative - battery prices, battery specific energy, battery rapid recharge / life / price trade off, battery charging infrastructure
3) FCV alternative - fuel cell prices, rare earth element availability / prices, hydrogen infrastructure, low cost conventional fuel reformers (gas, diesel, alcohol, natural gas, etc.)

Any of these factors could change with a major innovation that tips the balance their way, sooner or later. So far, I am not seeing a cheap, high specific energy / power, rapid rechargeable, long life battery come to market, so the door is still wide open for FCV's, especially in cold climates. Toyota, Honda and Hyundai will be offering FCV's in 2012, so start the clock there. Given the high performance capability of such a vehicle, they can certainly surpass the poorer performing hybrids' market penetration.

 

Delays? What delays? Better Place is exactly on target. The same target they gave three years ago. Do you have any references on delays in Israel? In fact, they just received the first pre-production Renault Fluence models and are testing them at their giant test center. They are moving ahead at a lighting pace.


"In both Israel and Denmark, Agassi expects to have a thorough evaluation of the Better Place system by the fall of 2011. He wants answers to three questions:

1. Does the system work
2. Do consumers like it
3. Can it be duplicated

"If the answer is yes to all three, then we replicate it around the world," Agassi said

Swap time: 59 seconds

Better Place has another project beginning in Australia and, at the behest of the Japanese government, is testing battery swaps with Tokyo taxis. So far, the company says, the average swap time is 59 seconds."

http://reviews.cnet.com/8301-13746_7-20019890-48.html

 

Better Place Battery Exchange Station Rollout Slowed for Denmark

Better Place Battery Exchange Station Rollout Slowed for Denmark

Link

Just passing on info as I encounter it.