My friend is very happy with the toyota prius. i want a hydrogen fuel car, and you?

Question

requires half the fuel. but the hydrogen care will take less plus it is simplier with maintenance. the big deal accordingto some documentary i watch is installing the infra struture everywhere in each nation. hydrogen is unlimited and emits water vapor and how bad can that be. i learned in hs chem lab (and film of final moments of Hindenberg blimp) how bad it can be. but we will have to live with the risk. Every so often one will light up and somebody gets roasted. it is a brave new world we enter. not the farm i grew up on with grandpops. he would have chuckled and drove the hydrogen car. we stopped everything to watch planes going over back then. once and blimp landed in a pasture. i was dumbfounded. it was so moving that i dreamt about it for years. may as well been men from mars. they fixed something got back in and slowly rose up and went out of sight. anything is possible in the brave new world,it seemed. a farm is better for learning things. didn't learn much in the big city.

Answer 1

The chevy volt is coming out in 2009. It is a plug-in hybrid. And it only uses electric motors to power it. The gasoline engine only makes electricity.

Answer 2

hydrogen may not use less well to wheel because of the energy required to produce and transport it. Hydrogen leaks easily and takes up a lot of volume (clue: lighter than air) unless compressed - using more energy.

the fuel-cell (currently needing v expensive materials) converts hydrogen back to electric. Water is not necesarily "safe"- one of the main causes of disease in poor city homes is damp.

Fuel cells have long been promised and received lots of funding (to get 'round CARB requirement to sell electric cars http://www.whokilledtheelectriccar.com ) but have yet to deliver

For battery electric the infrastructure is already there; the battery technology is already there for 200mile range, recharge in 10 minutes. no street emmissions http://altairnano.com/markets_energy_sys... .

I have a prius 'cos it drives like an electric, smooth, quiet, instant torque. But I prefer my pure electric - refuel at home smell free, really quiet, lower maintenace. http://batteryvehiclesociety.org.uk/word...

Answer 3

I would rather have a velomobile.  Elbow grease is cheaper to make than hydrogen.

Answer 4

i dont know about hydrogen fueled cars i just get my fule at my local resturant, frier grease burns great in my truck

Answer 5

Your in luck they are blaming most of the flames on the paint that was applied to the outer surface of the hindinburg now

Answer 6

i really don't know a thing about cars. i just have a subaru and i'm happy with it, but i sure enjoy reading your questions and answers,  so interesting !

Answer 7

Hydrogen is only unlimited if you can get it from water.  Breaking the atomic bonds in water takes a ton of energy - more energy than you're going to get by burning hydrogen.  Unless we can figure out a less energy intensive way to perform electrolysis, that's a serious problem.

Even if we solve that problem, building the necessary hydrogen transportation and storage infrastructure will cost billions of dollars.

I'd rather have an electric car.  They're more environmentally friendly, some really cool ones will soon be available, and the infrastructure (power grid) is already in place.

I've got a Prius now though, and it's pretty sweet.

Answer 8

Not again !

What infrastructure ? We all have access to water, all we need is a hydro generator fitting in the motor and we can fill up at home. My other half ( part mad scientist ) fitted one up in his Rover and doubled his mileage, just feeding it in with the petrol. OK so at the moment it blows fuses every now and then but that's just a teething problem.( so does my radio) It changes the gear handling so it's more efficient with that too.

The only reason they'd need to tank it round and put it in pumps is to collect more revenue and I think they get enough of that already. Combustion problems solved with anti feedback valves yada yada yada

Mines straight petrol, I'll get the hydro when he's done tinkering -I don't have the patience to keep tinkering to get the mix right etc.