How soon will cars with hydrogen fuel cells be available?

Question

My first thought is after all the oil is gone... Or maybe when it's too late to make an impact on global warming? Take the electric car for example. The auto industry and oil companies didn't have a monopoly on electric cars, so they had to go away. Even though the infrastructure required for hydrogen will be many times more expensive to build then electric, and it will take many years more until we can see hydrogen fuel cell vehicles operating on our roads. I'm afraid by the time these vehicles are widely available, it will be too little, too late. We could be making a difference everyday with electric vehicles today. Unlike hydrogen fuel cell cars, it's a technology of today, not tomorrow. And you could charge an electric car at home...How easy! Unfortunately, the auto industry and the oil companies wouldn't make money that way.

Answer 1

Go to www.preignitioncc.com/ca35 and check out the hfac section.  Its available now.   Thanks Curt

Answer 2

I doubt they ever will be made available.

I think they are too complex to ever be made efficient.  I think that if electric cars are going to be the future, super-capacitors are the technology they will go with.

Answer 3

Soon if gas prices continue to rise.

Answer 4

You are right, but just hold on.  I think electric cars are going to become serious in the next decade.  They already have electric cars coming out like the zap-x, and the Tesla roadster, although these cars are expensive it shows that the technology exists.  In my opinion things like hydrogen and E85 are a joke.  I think it's just the way that our current gov't, along with oil companies are pushing things along, they know that hydrogen won't be possible for decades if ever, and E85 is no answer either.  In ten years from now I WILL be driving an electric car, it will be hard not to laugh as I past gas stations with gas over $5, lol.

Answer 5

I agree - hydrogen is mainly a boondoggle, a way to waste time, and take our attention away from electric vehicles.

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A hydrogen fuel cell car IS an electric car. It even has batteries, since the output of the fuel cell isn't strong enough to accelerate without them. So a fuel-cell car will always be heavier, and more expensive than an ordinary electric car.

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Consider GM's Sequel, their fuel-cell car they've been demonstrating. It has a 300-mile range, but it weighs nearly 5,000 pounds!  Compare that to the Tesla electric sports car ( http://teslamotors.com ). The Tesla has a 250-mile range, but it only weighs half as much as the Sequel.

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If we added a couple thousand pounds of additional batteries to the Tesla, to get it up to the Sequel's ridiculous weight, the Tesla would have a driving range of nearly 1,000 miles.

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Now THAT would be impressive.

Answer 6

Hydrogen-fueled cars will not comprise a significant portion of the transportation sector for several decades.  At least 20 years, probably more like 40.  The technology simply isn't there yet.  The only reasonably efficient method we currently have to extract hydrogen is from natural gas, and that process produces as much carbon dioxide as burning gasoline.  Even if it were a reasonable technology to develop commercially, we don't have the infrastructure for hydrogen fueling stations.

There is some promising research in getting hydrogen from a combination of water with aluminum alloys, but that technology is still a long way off.  They're only planning on trying it with small engines like on chainsaws and lawnmowers, and if that works they may try to scale up to cars.

So you're right that hydrogen cars will be too little too late.  We need to concentrate on technology which is already in a commercially viable state, like hybrids, electric cars, and biodiesel.  Hydrogen-fueled cars should only be viewed as a partial solution in the long-term.

Answer 7

Honda says 2009.

Answer 8

i heard around 2009-2010...

Answer 9

Hydrogen cars are here now, but they are not practical.

They will be ready for consumers to purchase in 10 or 15 years.......(just like we were told 10 to 15 years ago)

Answer 10

i think i will go with a compressed air  car they have them in Europe and it can take you from L.A. to N.Y on one tank of gas and a tank of air and they are safe.

saw it on the science channel

Answer 11

The technology of hydrogen-powered cars has two strikes against it:

1. Hydrogen isn't really a fuel.  It's just a way of storing energy and has to be produced by using other kinds of fuel, like coal, natural gas, oil, wood or nuclear energy.

2. Hydrogen isn't a very good way to store energy because its low density prevents it from storing much energy in a given volume.  Gasoline contains a lot of energy in a small volume.

So simple physics and economics tell us that hydrogen-powered cars aren't practical.  Fuel cells are expensive, too, although the costs are gradually coming down.