The price tag could be a major issue with this one. If it's affordable to the middle class fairly easily, then it could quite revolutionize cars. Sure, some people will want to stick to good old fashioned gas powered cars (and to a degree I can't blame them), being able to provide your own gas at home may be a temptation too great to ignore. Especially given gas prices. Gas is a huge mark-up nowadays, especially for people always on the go. The one question I would have would be "What about if the gas station at home runs out of gas?" I don't know much about this, but it sounds like the fuel collecting could be a process that takes time.

Wow this is science fiction! Why would anyone buy this? It takes more energy to get the hydrogen than the hydrogen can provide to drive the car. Classic example of throwing good money after bad.

Maybe the energy companies will buy and build solar powered hydrogen production facilities. I guess you could mine the solar system for it. Chemical reactions might work but some Elements are already becoming scarce. Maybe the energy companies should comment!

If I can afford it I'll be one of the first in line! The fuel is the easy part, contrary to previous posts. Mine the solar system? Hello! A third-grade science experiment can use solar power to crack hydrogen out of ordinary seawater. The combustion process turns it back into water! People will be building collectors at the back of their garages and I'd be willing to guess someone will figure out how to use the leftover laundry water to power their commute. It's also pretty safe - even watching the Hindenburg disaster film you can see how slowly the hydrogen is burning - not exploding

Well, until this car comes out, or more preferrably the GM version, I'll be doing this: http://www.savefuel.ca/

...or something similar out of my garage.

With any new technology, the price will be high. With time and volume, the price will
drop and become available for everyone.

What's really exciting is that Honda will also sell you a system that will attach to you natural gas line which will convert natural gas to Hydrogen for fueling your car right from your own garage.

The impact on the environment as well as our dependence on oil will be a move in a profoundly positive direction.

If you think hydrogen fuel cells is exciting, we'll all see "micro fuel cell" technology in portable devices such as cell phone, laptop, PDA or any portable device in the coming 12-18 months.

We'll be covering the industry at http://www.microfuelcell.com.

Regards,

Editor and President
http://www.FuelCellMagazine.com
http://www.HydrogenMagazine.com
http://www.MicroFuelCell.com

With any new technology, the price will be high. With time and volume, the price will
drop and become available for everyone.

What's really exciting is that Honda will also sell you a system that will attach to you natural gas line which will convert natural gas to Hydrogen for fueling your car right from your own garage.

The impact on the environment as well as our dependence on oil will be a move in a profoundly positive direction.

If you think hydrogen fuel cells is exciting, we'll all see "micro fuel cell" technology in portable devices such as cell phone, laptop, PDA or any portable device in the coming 12-18 months.

We'll be covering the industry at http://www.microfuelcell.com.

Regards,

Editor and President
http://www.FuelCellMagazine.com
http://www.HydrogenMagazine.com
http://www.MicroFuelCell.com

Hi - I've only just come across this article and it's been superseded by the announcement of Honda FCX.
However it's an interesting development.

Any new model will have a premium price and this is no different.

However there is no doubt that the technology available now puts this someway off into the future. The economics of the Hydrogen economy are not good and it uses a lot of energy to seperate the Hydrogen, compress it and distribute to the user. In particular, although NASA uses Hydrogen on a small scale and there is a pipe network to move the Hydrogen, any large scale or even national distribution would require a MAJOR investment in infrastructure. NASA have no other choice in this matter.

You might want to look at the discussion on physorg.com about this topic.

Local or home based micro-generation might be the answer and even in-car generation is possible but I do not believe the numbers add up to make this economically viable. The energy required to operate a micro Hydrogen generator is large and the efficiency is low. The best estimate I have seen is that Hydrogen as a fuel supplies around 25% of the energy input required to obtain it.

In fact I would go so far as to say that the whole Hydrogen Economy concept might be obsolete before it becomes viable.

That is not to say, for instance, that fuel cells do not have their place in the energy generation spectrum because of their particular mode of operation.

A question: Why use a secondary source of power when a primary is available. i.e. Hydrogen is obtained by using a primary source of power and because of the inevitable loss in efficiency will only provide less energy than was used to obtain it - EVER.

Only a thought.

Peter

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