How come even though we have the technology to produce hydrogen powered cars we're not?

Question

I've seen one drive before how come the rest of us cant have one im sick and tired of gas, and im tired of listening to people complain about prices when they drive suvs, they're part of the problem.

Answer 1

One word, COST.  Hydrogen fueled cars cost more than equivelent gasoline or diesel powered cars.

Hydrogen costs more than gasoline or diesel (on an energy equivelent basis).

Answer 2

Because of the cost of hydrogen, plus the fact that today we're mostly making hydrogen indirectly from fossil fuels (so, there is not benefit to the environment).

Answer 3

If H2 powered cars were a viable option, they would be everywhere. They are not yet due to many variable like safety, production cost, reliability, etc.

Can't blame it on the government or the oil companies. Many countries around the world have had very high gas prices for many years. Their scientists and engineers have also been researching these alternatives and have not found a better option as well. Europe and Japan have chosen primarily to just go with small cars and diesels as the best option.

Answer 4

It's not really a matter of cost as most people have claimed.  The problem is that we simply don't have the technology for hydrogen fueled cars to be a viable option.

Currently the only reasonably efficient way to get hydrogen is from natural gas, but that process releases as much carbon dioxide as burning gasoline.  It also costs more, so there's simply no benefit.  Ideally we would get hydrogen from water via electrolysis, but this process currently requires far too much energy and is extremely inefficient.

Even if we were able to extract hydrogen efficiently enough, there's no infrastructure to transport and store hydrogen as a fuel.  Building such infrastructure would cost billions of dollars, and who's going to invest that when there aren't hydrogen fueled cars in production?  Who's going to build hydrogen fueled cars when there's no fueling infrastructure in place?

One possible solution is hydrogen fuel cells, which produce the hydrogen within the car.  However, the technology for this is too expensive and insufficiently advanced.

There's another possibility of getting hydrogen by combining aluminum-gallium alloys with water, which would solve most of these problems.  However, this process is still in the early stages.

http://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/200...

Hydrogen simply won't be a viable car fuel source for several decades.  In the meantime we should be focusing on hybrids and electric vehicles, whose technology is already sufficiently advanced.

http://answers.yahoo.com/question/index;...

Answer 5

Yes, we have the technology. No, it is not affordable. And when was the last time you say a hydrogen station on a street corner? Hydrogen is very dangerous; it's extremely flammable and if not handled right will make a tremendous explosion (see films of the Hindenburg crash).

We can also make artificial diamonds so why dont' we all have diamond-encrusted cellphones?

Answer 6

In Iceland, they have pledged to produce 100% of their electricity from geothermal sources. Then they are using that power to produce hydrogen, in small generating centers at gasd stations. But here in the USA, we aren't yet spending the money to get going with pilot schemes for hydrogen.

Answer 7

I agree with all of the above, money cost.  Remember the days when computers were $3,000 - $4,000 and you'd get 1 Meg Memory and that was supposed to be advanced?  

I've researched bio-diesel for my husband's trucking business and it also didn't turn out to work because there aren't enough bio-fueling stations local to us.  

So, we're using FFI's products to help improve our fuel consumption while eliminating 75% of the emissions our vehicles put out.  I've been pleasantly pleased with the product for the last 8 months.  Of course, we buy wholesale because of our business consumption so we also have a retail website.

Answer 8

The main reason is to many people base there life off of oil it would ruin allot of peoples livelihood to switch from oil to an alternative fuel so they discredit new inventions and convince the public that it would ruin the economy and people would suffer . I believe we would all be allot better off without oil as a fuel in the long run .  It would be hard at first and yes allot of people would lose there fortune but the work that it would create would well be worth it and we would all be wealthy .

Hydrogen is no more dangerous then propane gas . The only way its highly explosive is when its mixed with oxygen . We use propane every day in homes vehicles grills you name it its used there.

Answer 9

Where you gonna buy  hydrogen??

There's no filling stations in place to refuel these cars.

Plus, while the technology exists, if a single car is gonna cost a 100,000 bucks or more, there's not much point in producing them.

Economic reality sucks.

ON the other hand, I just read that GM or Chrysler or one of those companies is planning on a 600,000 initial car production level for hydrogen vehicles.

Answer 10

Can you afford a car that cost a million dollars.  They need to learn how to make the car at a reasonable price.  

Hydrogen power has not been proven as a practical source.   Frankly I would like to see electric cars.  To make Hydrogen by the current method, we need to conver Fossil fuel to make electricity and then convert Electricity to make Hydrogen. We lose energy at each step.

Answer 11

Because hydrogen cars would be prohibitively expensive.

Just because we have the technology to do something does not meen it is pactical or marketable.  Today's hydrogen cars are showpieces made by the car companies to show off their technical skill and environmental concern, and are highly visible.

What you don't see are the legions of service people that keep these virtually one of a kind machis operating.  The catalysts in the fuel cells use up some expensive materials like platinum and don't last more than half a year or so.  Have you ever wondered why GM has never mentioned how much their HyWire would cost?  That's because its in the millions.

Add to this the fact that the infrastructure for producing and distributing hydrogen is nonexistent, and the fact that cars simply can't hold enough hydrogen to go more than a hundred or so miles, and you have a still immature technology.  Car and Driver estimates we won't see retail Hydrogen cars until after 2020.

Answer 12

Because we don't have the production facilities needed to produce hydrogen in the quantities required nor the distribution system needed to get it to your car.  Hydrogen right now is probably going to be more expensive than Petrol or Diesel per litre and also pollute more (since if started right now we'd be using steam reforming of methane to produce it instead of electrolysis or a higher temperature thermochemical method).

People who drive SUVs you may notice aren't driving as much (or if they are they are cutting back on other expenses) so they get to be the first ones to suffer when fuel prices go up (while those of us who buy sensibly sized cars don't worry so much).

Note: The product that Sinnary mentions doesn't work, see http://www.fuelsaving.info/ffi.htm for why.

Answer 13

EVERYTHING, EVERYTHING is about money.

Answer 14

Get over your sickofness. Too costly to produce, distribute, make cars that can run on~ hydrogen. Too unsafe to fill cars with (can't be made idiot-proof). Japan has abandoned hydrogen as fuel for all those reasons and more. Impractical, totally.