- 3894 - HYDROGEN CARS - the future is here?
--------- 3894 - HYDROGEN CARS - the future is here?
- Gary is
looking to buy one of these. Sure hope
he gives us a ride? Fuel cells seem to
be the solution to every problem that everyone has ever had with an Electric
Vehicle. They'll do upwards of 400 miles on a tank, refuel in only a few
minutes, and use about 90 percent less heavy metals than an EV.
-
- So what's the
problem Gary? The problem is the fuel. There are literally more Tesla
Superchargers in San Francisco alone than there are hydrogen stations in the
entirety of the U.S.
-
-
Mercedes-Benz, Toyota, Honda, Hyundai, and plenty of others have been
showing off fuel cell cars for decades, none of which have gone into mass
production.
-
- Hydrogen
itself can be produced in a number of ways, some more environmentally conscious
than others, but in an ideal world the stuff can be pulled straight out of
water by a process called electrolysis, where renewable energy (typically wind
or solar) is used to split the H from the O, emissions-free.
-
- That
hydrogen can then be run through a “fuel
cell” to generate power. An array of
fuel cells combine the pure hydrogen with oxygen from the air. From that
reaction, you get back out what you put in: electricity and water. The
electricity powers the car, while the water goes back to the earth out the tail
pipe.
-
- The process
is more complicated than a battery-electric car, but fuel-cell cars are still
Evs, still driven by electric motors.
They still have batteries, too, but tiny ones, about 95 percent smaller than
that on a Tesla Model S.
-
- That battery
only serves as a bit of a buffer. The fuel cell array itself can directly
provide enough electricity to drive the BMW iX5 in normal conditions. BMW has partnered with Toyota to develop the
fuel cell technology. In the case of the BMW iX5, 383 individual fuel cells are
arrayed together to provide the near-400-horsepower performance.
-
- Driving the
BMW iX5 is just like driving any other electric BMW. Pull the shifter into D,
push on the right pedal, and the car glides forward silently. It's only under
full-throttle acceleration that you get just the slightest bit of a whooshing
sound from the fuel cell as it sucks in air and hydrogen as fast as it possibly
can.
-
- All 396
horsepower is available instantly, making this SUV feel like a much sportier
car. The iX5's handling is relaxed and a
0-to-60 mph time of under six seconds is respectable.
-
- BMW
estimates over 300 miles of range on a single tank of hydrogen, which puts it
on par with big-battery luxury EVs like the Mercedes-Benz EQS. But, there's a
major difference: the iX5 refuels in just a few minutes.
-
- The process
is really no more complicated than gassing up a traditional car. You just pull
up to a pump, connect the pressurized line, and press a button to start.
Filling a three-quarters-empty tank took three minutes and five seconds.
-
- Even the
fastest of fast charging for an EV these days takes a good 15 to 20 minutes for
an 80 percent charge, and about an hour to go to full. Cost? About $75 for that
hydrogen, but prices are extremely elevated now thanks to energy shortages
stemming from the Ukraine war. Normally, they'd be closer to half that. $35 for a fill up.
-
- The hydrogen
is stored in a pair of tanks, cleverly packaged to run along the central
transmission tunnel in the car and beneath the rear seats. This means that the
iX5 gives up neither cargo capacity nor legroom.
-
- Those tanks
are made of carbon fiber and are incredibly hard to damage in a crash. They
also have safety valves to ensure that, in a situation like a vehicle fire, the
hydrogen is vented safely, more of a
hiss than a boom.
-
- Gary says the
car is great to drive, the range is more than adequate, and the fast refueling
makes it a practical solution for anybody with a long way to go.
- It comes
down to supply and demand. Specifically, the lack of supply. There are only
about 70 refueling stations in the entirety of the U.S., all in California.
We've seen pilot programs like the Toyota Mirai in small numbers for years, but
nobody wants to invest in building more hydrogen stations elsewhere without
more cars on the road. Meanwhile, nobody will buy cars without filling
stations. A catch 22!
-
- In the
U.S., but Connecticut, Massachusetts, New Jersey, and New York have all signed
on to an agreement to create a series of "Hydrogen Hubs". Support for
hydrogen doesn't have to come at the expense of building out EV charging
networks. In fact, it might be cheaper to build both, saturating urban and main
travel routes with high-speed battery chargers while leaving the more rural
areas to hydrogen.
-
- The most
efficient way forward is not relying on ever bigger, ever heavier batteries in
EVs, but instead smaller, more practical city EVs complemented with
fuel-cell-powered cars for those who need to go farther or tow more.
-
- Hydrogen not
only solves many EV problems like range and recharging, but that fuel cell cars
will thrive when the world's lithium supply chain hits its breaking point.
"You already see that in '27 and '28, there will be a scarcity. So that is
where hydrogen comes in. It uses less raw materials in a much, much smaller battery.
-
- An ideal
future is where areas bathed in sunlight use solar cells to generate hydrogen,
which will be loaded onto next-gen tankers and shipped to countries around the
world, emissions-free from the air and back to it.
-
- It sounds like
an impossible dream, but Japan is already importing hydrogen from Australia,
and there are plenty of other places in the world where this could happen. I
hope Gary gives us a ride in his new car.
-
February
27, 2023 HYDROGEN CARS
- the future is here? 3894
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--- Monday, February 27, 2023 ---------------------------
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