Emma Smith
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From The Sunday Times
October 28, 2007
Up, up and away – the hydrogen car is here
The hydrogen fuel cell is the holy grail of greener motoring and Honda has got there first
There was every conceivable type of environmentally friendly car on show at the Tokyo motor show last week, but Honda scooped them all by announcing it will be putting the world’s first hydrogen fuel cell car into production next year.
The car will travel an estimated 270 miles at speeds of up to 100mph and will produce only water vapour from its exhaust. It is expected to cost £50,000 and will be available initially only in America and Japan.
To be unveiled at the Los Angeles motor show next month, the car is expected to closely follow the design of the FCX concept car. Inside, it will provide space for four in a futuristic looking cabin. Instead of a fuel gauge there will be a range meter that tells you how far you can travel with the hydrogen left in the tank.
It is also expected to feature lithium-ion batteries to recover energy during braking. The transmission will be gearless so you will simply select neutral or drive.
The announcement by Takeo Fukui, president and chief executive of Honda Motor Company, is a landmark in new car technology. The fuel cell has long been the holy grail of eco-motoring because it produces a smooth, almost silent ride and zero emissions. Honda has been working on various forms of the FCX for more than five years. However, last week’s announcement took the motoring world by surprise: previous estimates for a viable fuel cell car ranged from 10 years to 20 years in the future, while the modest price tag means the Honda will cost less than many current prestige family saloons.
As well as technical difficulties, there are practical hurdles, too. Hydrogen takes up more space than the amount of petrol required to travel a similar distance, meaning that fuel tanks for hydrogen have been bulky, while the lack of infrastructure means there are few places where drivers will be able to fill up with hydrogen fuel.
“When the car was invented, countries weren’t full of petrol stations,” said Fukui in response to questions about the lack of infrastructure. “When the demand is there it [the hydrogen economy] will happen.” Other car companies are also vying to harness to the power of hydrogen. BMW last year built 100 hydrogen-powered 7-series cars (although they were not for sale and use a combustion engine rather than a fuel cell) and Mazda revealed its Premacy RE hydrogen hybrid at the Tokyo show.
The Premacy features a rotary engine that can run on hydrogen or petrol and will become part of a commercial leasing scheme next year. It has a range of about 120 miles on hydrogen and will be used as part of the HyNor project, a scheme to introduce a 110-mile “hydrogen highway” in Norway between Oslo and Stavanger.
Not all car makers at the Tokyo show see hydrogen as the future. Away from the spotlights and flashguns, Toyota – the world’s largest car company and maker of the hybrid Prius – was quietly testing the car it sees as the future of green motoring at its track at the foot of Mount Fuji.
Powered by a battery pack twice the size of that of the existing Prius, the new vehicle will be able to run much greater distances on electricity alone than the existing model.
It plugs into the mains overnight, and, says Toyota, has lower running costs and emissions than the Prius. Toyota hopes the newCO2 technology will be the solution to a problem that the company privately acknowledges: the Prius is not as fuel-efficient as many conventional cars.
The prototype on test last week was fitted with nickel-hydride batteries, but when the new model goes on sale – possibly in 2009 – it may be equipped with more compact and lighter lithium-ion batteries.
Toyota claims a twofold advantage for these vehicles. First, more energy can be stored, giving increased range. Second, mileage costs are reduced because electrical recharging is far cheaper than refuelling with petrol or diesel. The new Prius has been designed with an eye on the American market, where some Prius owners have been paying several thousand dollars to convert their car to make it mains-rechargeable.
A recent American study showed that applying the cost of US electricity at the typical rate of 9 cents per kilowatt-hour (kWh), 30 miles of electric driving costs 81 cents.
Toyota also says that compared with the current Prius, the new model achieves a 13% reduction in CO2 emissions on a 15-mile journey. But the plug-in hybrid could add little environmental benefit unless the mains electricity comes from a source that does , such as solar or not emit CO2 nuclear power. “Otherwise there is the issue of just shifting the pollution from cars to power stations,” said Scott Brownlee, of Toyota UK.
UK buyers without a garage or driveway would also need to overcome the legal obstacle of a cable trailing across a pavement between home and car.
Notwithstanding these drawbacks, Toyota believes plug-in hybrid technology is the way forward. In Tokyo it unveiled the 1/X concept car, a hybrid plug-in family car that it says points towards the longer-term future of car design.
Not surprisingly Honda, flushed with the success of its fuel cell project, said further development of hybrids was no more than an expensive sideshow. “Carrying a [mains rechargeable] battery [as well as an engine] is dead weight,” said Fukui, adding that Toyota’s enthusiasm for plug-ins was fuelled by the desire to be able to use more mains electricity produced by US-sourced coal rather than imported oil.
“It is highly political,” said Fukui, “but, technically speaking it’s nonsense.”
Stars of the show
VW Space UP! The Space UP! is a minivan version of the UP! people’s car unveiled in Frankfurt. It has rear-hinged “suicide” doors and space for four adults, while a split tailgate such as the new Mini Clubman’s improves rear access. The final UP! concept, rumoured to be a fuel-efficient SUV, should be at the Los Angeles motor show at the end of November.
Volvo ReCharge First seen at the Frankfurt show last month this plug-in hybrid is fitted with a 1.6 litre engine and four individual electric motors – one in each wheel. The ReCharge can run on battery power alone for up to 62 miles and Volvo says the lithium-polymer batteries can be recharged fully in just three hours, with a one-hour charge providing enough power for a 30-mile journey.
Honda Puyo The maker says that due to this concept’s lack of sharp edges and it being covered in soft silicone it can absorb light collisions. As if that isn’t radical enough, it replaces the steering wheel with a joystick and glows in different colours, depending on whether it is running or standing still. Under the bonnet is a fuel cell that creates electricity from hydrogen and oxygen, emitting only water as its “exhaust”. But unlike the FCX, it’s only a showcase.
Nissan Pivo2 Carlos Ghosn, head of Renault and Nissan, claims the Pivo2’s lithium-ion batteries are “compact, high powered and safe” – a reference to safety fears that such batteries tend to overheat. The wacky Pivo2 has a drive-by-wire system that enables the cabin to spin around and wheels that angle at 90 degrees, meaning the car can park sideways. Daft.
Mitsubishi i MiEV Sport Mitsubishi aims to sell electric vehicles in Britain by 2009. Its latest concept uses three electric motors producing 117hp together. There’s a motor in each front wheel and one driving the rear wheels. A plug-in lithium-ion battery pack is fitted beneath the floor and allows a 124-mile range between charges.
Hydrogen Electrolysis is not viable, if you use battery power to convert water to hydrogen, and then burn the hydrogen to create energy and water then obviously energy will be lost, conservation of energy principles prove this. A simple electrical motor is much more efficient. Beware a "quick fix".
Luke, Swansea, Wales
Many people are now working on quite successful electrolyser units where the only thing in the fuel tank is water which is much more safe than tanks full of explosive and highly dangerous hydrogen.
we ourselves have solved all the problems of producing hydrogen as you travel thus making it the safest method , of course soon to be ex petrol companies will say things against it as they still will want to rip off the motorist as usual but the fact is basically anyone canvert their car to run via an electrolyser that only produces the hydrogen needed at that time . if you want to convert your car now to run on water which is then turned into hyfdrogen when needed just look on the web ,
if your a motorist dont let the so called fuel companies rip you off any more , there are other methods that are easy and safer than those that the big companies want you to have as they want to hold us to ransom again and again ..........dont let it happen!!
.
SERL, Scarborough, england
Hydrogen in a tablet form can be carried without a need for a fuel tank in a motor vehicle this removes the risk of venting no vapours just use ammonia to change back into Hydrogen
Craig, Cleveland,
The last author is write only if it is liquid hydrogen. Gaseous hydrogen is allready produced around the world. The Well to Wheel analysis suggest that gaseous hydrogen is slight more efficienct than gasoline at around 27 to 28%. Nearly 30% of gaseous hydrogen is produced through the electrolsis of water. Note in the future it is likely we will go for bio-hydrogen production from waste. Hydrogen is like any other energy carrier it has it problems and it will be a challege to over come. There is no quick fix.
Nailis, Newcastle, England
Plug-in-hybrids require electricity to charge their batteries. Hydrogen is made from electricity. The obvious question is: Will the electricity required to make the hydrogen be more or less per mile driven than the electricity to charge the batteries of the plug in hybrid? It is frequently pointed out that using electricity simply transfers the burning of fossil fuel from the automobile to the power station. This will often be true, though it is simple-minded and fatuous. Power stations generate electricity a lot more efficiently than automobiles can convert fuel into motion. This is why 81 cents of electricity will take you 30 miles. Power stations are less poluting per unit of energy than automobiles because they are more efficient, and also because they are easier to regulate. Furthermore, there are many alternatives (some of which are not fossil fuels) which power stations can use, and security of supply and price stability is critical.
Tom Berry, Pacific Palisades, USA
Rich T. I absolutely agree. Unfortunately both your country and mine are ruled by politicians without any mind construct beyond their elected terms.
In Oz, we have universities which excell at solar technologies (gee, we even have a solar car challenge over 1000 miles in which countries all over he world participate) but these meatheads we elect into parliament don't have enough vision.
Look i agree with you, but we as a nation and people like you, need to keep pushing step by step to resolve this.
Swing like a pendulum, Sydney, Australia
A pity the author failed to mention where hydrogen comes from, and that it takes tremendous amounts of energy in order to produce the hydrogen. Countless studies have shown that hydrogen is a NET ENERGY LOSER, meaning that it takes more energy to produce the hydrogen than you get from using it. In order to produce the hydrogen, you need fossil fuel. So until someone finds a way to produce hydrogen without using fossil fuels, this automobile and its kind are a useless exercise.
Stephen M. Ballard, Washington, DC, USA
Actually, MAZDA are the FIRST to commercially lease their
RX-8 Hydrogen Rotary Hybrid, the car went on sale in Japan early this year.
Ash Grant, Seaford, Australia
They'll be panicking in the Middle East - can't hold us over a barrel in the future.
Phil , Preston,
how can it be that au. with a gazillion square miles of desert, doesn't have solar panel farms? why burn coal when the sun is cheaper.
Rich T., NY, NY, USA
Can we please not forget that HYDROGEN CARS ARE NOT ZERO EMISSION! Hydrogen is simply a way of transporting energy from one place to another. Hydrogen production requires A LOT of electricity (or natural gas - where the waste is, of course, CO2!) and it is very inefficient.
James Paley, Lausanne, Switzerland
Wilkes is right on.
B McF, Oakland, USA / CA
And lest not forget the 'efficiency' of batteries.
Stick a Mega Joule of energy into a battery and you will be lucky to get a third of that out.
Nick, Cornwall, Cornwall
Ruckrover of Adelaide only has part of the story.
It is true that an electric vehicle must inevitably be much more efficient than one driven by an internal combustion engine although the reason for this is not the number of moving parts but the second law of thermodynamics which applies to a heat engine but not an electric motor.
Unfortunately, the other part of the story is that the second law does apply to the coal fired power station that generates the electricity and the best contemporary, sub-critical, coal fired power stations operate at efficiencies that never exceed 38% whilst super-critical operation may increase that figure to about 42%.
These facts plus the higher carbon intensity of coal, when compared to oil, mean that the overall system's CO2 emissions of an electric vehicle operating on coal generated electricity are always going to be higher than those of an internal combustion engine.
Hence the requirement for nuclear generation.
Mike Wilkes, Brisbane, Queensland
Electric cars getting their power from coal-fired power stations still produce much less CO2 than petrol/diesel/gas engine cars.
The reason is electric cars have as few as 1 moving part in their engines, compared to 170 parts in the average internal combustion engine. The petrol/gas/diesel engine loses up to 70% of its power as noise and heat. The electric engine loses 5% or less of its power as noise and heat.
Electric engines are the way to go, and if we truly want to avoid catastrophic climate change - big petrol/gas/diesel engines should be taxed off the road and the money raised put to subisdising electric vehicles.
The oil saved can be used over coming centuries for air transport, shipping, mining and agriculture where big fossil fuel driven engines may still be needed. With Peak Oil coming around now - this is not an idle consideration.
The time for enjoying your noisy big engined car is over.
ruckrover, Adelaide, Australia