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Science-Technology Title: Automakers promote hydrogen cars; Obama administration remains skeptical Major foreign and domestic automakers that have invested billions in developing a hydrogen fuel cell car say the possibilities are near at hand and that by as early as 2015, the vehicles could begin appearing in showrooms. We feel like the technology is virtually ready to go, said Mike OBrien, vice president of product planning at Hyundai. 75 Comments Weigh InCorrections? More On This Story Automakers promote hydrogen cars President Obama calls for one-third cut to oil imports Budget deal: CBO analysis shows initial spending cuts less than expected COMPLETE COVERAGE: Federal budget showdown The Obama administration, however, is skeptical at best. In recent months, it has outraged the technologys advocates with budget cuts for hydrogen program and renewed the debate over whether hydrogen cars are a pipe dream or a viable means of reducing the nations oil dependence. First it cut the proposed budget for a key hydrogen program for the third year in a row by 40 percent. Then, in a major review of energy technology it touted hybrid and electric cars but was silent on hydrogen. Last week, in protest, a second member of a federal hydrogen technology advisory committee, Robert Walker, resigned. The first was Byron McCormick, the former director of General Motors hydrogen fuel cell team who also worked on the companys electric vehicles. I resigned because of the closed-mindedness of the administration on these matters, McCormick said over e-mail; he resigned after the budget was cut the first time. The dismissive attitude and seeming unwillingness to talk or discuss or even share any real technical basis for believing fuel cells and hydrogen will or wont work caused me to think I was wasting my time under the current circumstances. I just feel sad theyll be proven so very wrong by history. Even as battery electric cars are now being sold by major automakers General Motors is selling the Chevrolet Volt and Nissan the Leaf exactly how the nation should reduce its dependence on foreign oil is a matter of heated debate among policy makers, environmentalists and the auto companies. Its a shame how we lurch from one trendy technology to another, John DeCicco, a faculty fellow at the University of Michigans Energy Institute. Its premature to bless electricity today, just as it was premature to bless hydrogen five years ago. One of the key differences between the two hydrogen fuel cells and battery electrics is that the latter can be recharged at homes or businesses. By contrast, with hydrogen, its unclear how an equivalent system of refueling stations might be financed, supplied and built. Battery electric cars are much more expensive to make than gasoline cars of equivalent size; precise estimates from automakers for hydrogen car prices are unavailable. Arguing that the era of the electric car is near at hand, the Obama administration has placed its bets there. Obama has set a goal of getting 1 million electric cars on the road by 2015, a shift from President George W. Bush, who touted the hydrogen car. The Obama administration has supported $2.4 billion in spending for electric vehicle battery and component manufacturing plants and other electric car projects. It has also provided more than $2.5 billion in loans to Nissan, Tesla and Fisker to establish electric vehicle manufacturing facilities. At the same time, Energy Secretary Steven Chu has raised doubts about the hydrogen car. Before the cars can become much more than an experiment on American roads, the industry might need as much as $55 billion more in government support over the next 15 years, according to industry sources and a National Research Council report. That money would pay for more research and subsidies to build fueling stations. Last month, the Energy Department issued a 40-page document supposed to identify important research, development, and demonstration policy choices and summarize the departments technology program goals. The word hydrogen does not appear in it. We provided a first pass at those technologies that are likely to scale up in time to materially impact the presidents energy security and environmental goals and do so affordably, said an Energy Department official who spoke on condition of anonymity. The administration skepticism toward hydrogen has irked the hydrogen lobby, who note that the automakers are hard at work developing the technology. Toyota has hundreds of engineers at work on the technology. GM says it has 400 engineers at work on hydrogen in Honeoye Falls, N.Y. We know how to build the mousetrap, said Mary Beth Stanek, environment and energy director at GM. The costs are coming down. Theyre getting there. Some automakers, in fact, question the promise of electrics. In electric cars, its all about the next-generation battery that no one can define, OBrien of Hyundai said. We wish there was better synergy with government. Bill Reinert, national manager in the Advanced Technology Group at Toyota, said that hydrogen is performing admirably. ... Weve all said were going to bring our product to market in 2015. I think a lot of people in the industry will tell you: We just want a voice. We want you to understand how viable this technology is.
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#2. To: All (#0)
Plug-in electrics are not the future. It takes hour to recharge the battery to go a few miles. Increase government mandated gas mileage is not the answer either. We need a radical break from the 20th century. Fuel cells provide it.
I know a bit about this having consulted on Battery Management Systems. Was surrounded by "hope and change" dopes. Outside of my being repulsed by their earth firstism....I realize these dopes have not a clue about what to do with the worn out LiIon Cells......some moron said "well, they'll just put them to use powering stationary items once they don't hold enough charge for a car" Of course....stationary items will function real well on 3.7Vdc batteries that can't hold a 3.7Vdc charge @ worthwhile maH. and they'll just last forever and never clutter toxic waste dumps or end up as paperweights. ~ 7-8 years is the expected batt pack lifetime for these cars. These systems are series / parallel cells numbering in the hundreds of individual cells configured to provide both the voltage and current....these cells individually degrade requiring cell balancing up until they totally crap out and need to be shunted out of loop...loading down the remaining cells accordingly. Thus they are expensive / complex....and really without larger cell structures negating the need for such individual high quantities, completely shortsighted from the perspective of "green-ness" (whatever that means). Enough rambling.
#7. To: e_type_jag (#6)
(Edited)
Plug-in electrics are not the future. There are too many issues. Hydrogen fuel cells are we are going. The idiot Obama Administration is focusing on plug-in electrics, which will never be a true substitute for the internal combustion engine.
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