Which auto manufactor will be the first to mass producuce a hydrogen vehicle?

Question

Which auto manufactor will be the first to mass producuce a hydrogen vehicle?

Answer 1

chrysler

Answer 2

Honda - check their site.

Answer 3

It depends a little on what you mean by "mass produce".

If you mean that the company has gone beyond the testing and prototype phase to actually making production vehicles on an assembly line, then BMW already made the first "production-ready" hydrogen car: the Hydrogen 7.  They made a limited production run, and have leased about 100 vehicles.  BMW has not stated when or even if they will make another production run, but if they wanted to, they could do it immediately.  The car is basically a 760 that can run on hydrogen.  For comparison, BMW makes about 20,000 normal Series 7 cars a year.

If you mean that the company is actively producing vehicles for purchase at your local dealer to meet a demand for hydrogen vehicles... then no one is, and no one is likely to until around 2020.

Despite the corporate hype, Honda's FCX Clarity is still in a prototyping phase, similar to GM's EV1.  Honda will lease a few FCX vehicles in souther California and Japan, but these are essentially a "beta" product.  Honda states that it may be mass-producing the FCX by 2018.  Despite the $600 per month lease, the actual cost is well over $200,000 dollars.

Answer 4

None--because a hydrogen fuel car will nevr be mas-produced.

Why?  Basically, it has to do with the nature of the technology--and the alternatives available.

A hydrogen fuel cell system burns hydrogen, producing electricity, which then dries an electric motor, powering the car.  However, in order to get the hydrogen, you have to do one of two things:

a) extract it from oil.  That gets us nowhere, either in terms of energy independence or environmental protection.

b) split water into oxygen and hydrogen--wich will take exactly as much electricity as burning the hydrogen will produce.  More, actually, since you will have some mechanical inefficiency.

On the other hand, an all electric car is far simpler.  And cheaper.  It stores that same electricity in batteries.  . You have to produce the same--or more--electricity to run the hydrogen car, which is a more complex system.

In short, it's not competitive--and is never likely to be. Hydrogen fuel cells have many uses for which they are uniquely suited.  Powring everyday cars is not one of them.

Answer 5

Honda! the fcx clarity.

Answer 6

None.  There is no easy way to store enough H2 to go 300-400 miles on a tank. Until that problem is solved, and the infrastructure problem, H2 will be a no-go.

Answer 7

Honda is making 100-200 for sale in southern California where they've got some hydrogen fueling stations.  I wouldn't really consider that mass production.  I don't think we're going to see mass production of hydrogen cars for at least a couple of decades for reasons discussed in the link below.

Answer 8

Actually probably the first will be either Mercedes Benz or BMW.  I can't remember which one it is, but one of them is planning on making a hydrogen car, but they are planning on using a combustion engine instead.  Combustion engines are much cheaper to make than fuel cell vehicles due to the fact that the number of companies that make fuel cell parts right now is very limited raising the price of the parts dramatically.  So what will go over first should be a step in between fuel cells and the type of engines that are made today.

Most of the major car manufacturers have hydrogen cars on the road already.  It's just that none of them are for sale.  All of them are on leases.  Each hydrogen fuel cell car costs like a million or two to make.  And the car companies are using them mainly for testing purposes at this point.  Cities, universities, etc are leasing them at this point.  It's more of a promo thing.