Comments on: GM Stays the Course on Hydrogen Fuel Cell Vehicles

By: the forgotten

the forgotten — Mon, 02 Nov 2009 02:51:57 +0000

The volt is based on the Voltic platform. Right now it is paired to a gas ICE tuned to be a generator. The next generation will probably be paired to a smaller diesel. A fuel cell could be the future generation recharging the batteries and extending the range.

Fuel cells can use H2 as well as CNG.

If GM can get this perfected it could huge for the fleets like taxis, delivery, etc where fuel stations could be managed easily.

(personally if I was GM I would be rolling this tech - Voltic - into fleet type vehicles big time.)

By: skierpage

skierpage — Tue, 25 Aug 2009 01:27:04 +0000

The people who pop up saying "I like the Hyrodgen idea" and "Fuel Cell cars the answer to CO2 pollution" [sic] are either idiots or paid astroturfers, because they never engage with the engineering points that sensible people make every time this comes up.

Hydrogen fuel cell == battery electric vehicle with expensive range extender refueled by expensive fuel from a non-existent infrastructure.

H2 from fossil fuel -> just burn the fossil fuel in the (hybrid) car, saving the expense and inefficiency of hydrogen infrastructure.

H2 from renewables -> sure, when renewable energy is so cheap you can afford to put $40,000 of solar on your roof to make H2 instead of $10,000 of solar to recharge batteries and investing some of the savings in more batteries. Tacking "renewable" on doesn't make efficiency issues go away.

Hydrogen is the wet dream of fossil fuel companies facing a world where most people refuel their cars with electricity at home for most trips .

By: DC

DC — Mon, 24 Aug 2009 04:30:43 +0000

Hydrogen is quite litteraly, an energy sink. You will never get more energy out of a H2 system as you put into it. It does not matter one iota if the primary energy source is coal, oil bio-mass nuclear or solar. It will take you 3-4 units of raw energy to acheive 1 net unit of usable hydrogen. GM backs it simply becuase the US govt was handing out free money to auto-makers to research vehicles they knew full well would never see a dealers lot. Moreover there contined support of a black-hole like H2 vehicles is useful if only so they can make noise about how they appear to be interested in clean advanced vehicles, but in reality are interested in burying them. FC vehicles are simply not practical and GM knows it.

By: Anonymous

Anonymous — Sat, 22 Aug 2009 01:54:51 +0000

I like H2 as long as it comes from renewable sources and not natural gas.

I like electric cars if the range can be upped and recharge time reduced.

Exchanging oil for coal would make better national security sense.

By: FamilyGuy

FamilyGuy — Fri, 21 Aug 2009 18:39:23 +0000

I like the EV idea, but limited ranges and long recharge times are not helping their cause. Also, where is this electricity coming from? Burning coal, sure, we have it here in the US, but is that any better for the environment? Off oil and into coal? Is this the way to go?

I like the Hyrodgen idea. I hope that it can work.

By: Blue Swan

Blue Swan — Fri, 21 Aug 2009 17:51:50 +0000

Fuel Cell cars the answer to CO2 pollution and true energy independence.

The grid can adapt to creating H2 using solar and wind and still provide baseload with H2.

Battery cars are a fantasy and must be abandoned quickly.

By: Skeptic

Skeptic — Fri, 21 Aug 2009 14:40:43 +0000

Hydrogen is, literally, vaporware.

What most of the unwashed masses don't understand when they babble about how the "hydrogen economy will save us" is that there is no ready source of hydrogen - it's all combined with something else. So you have to spend lots of energy getting the hydrogen into usable form so that you can drive to McDonald's.

As someone else said, you might as well just burn gasoline.

Until it's gone and we finally do something smart, like invest in electrified ground transportation (and no, I don't mean MagLevs - more vaporware!).

By: dalwinder sidhu

dalwinder sidhu — Fri, 21 Aug 2009 11:52:09 +0000

I think fuel cell technology needs more research and development to achieve our goal.This will be useful tool to cleaner air and peace in the universe.

By: Malaysian Plug-in Hybrid Advocate

Malaysian Plug-in Hybrid Advocate — Fri, 21 Aug 2009 08:15:50 +0000

To get a liter of hydrogen we have to burn multiple liters of gas, just to get a few kilowatts of electricity. Why not burn a liter of gas to generate a few kilowatts of electricity like hybrid??

By: aaronz

aaronz — Fri, 21 Aug 2009 05:36:47 +0000

i think fuel cells are out dated its like a gas car.

I like pure evs it makes the car simpler and less maintenance just plug it in no need for pumps and tubes and extra stuff. Pure Ev is just a battery and a electric engine. and a fuel cell is electric but the only benefit is that u can refuel faster! but in 10 years we will have like 880v and 100a quick charges with 200mile range evs