Quote:
Originally Posted by Jgeekw
I'm all for being less dependent on foreign oil and being nicer to the environment, but I'm not sure if fuel cell vehicles are really the way to go.
Early estimates were showing these cars cost ~$1,000,000 to make. Fueling stations are few in number, and compressed hydrogen is somewhat dangerous.
Price wise, I think battery-electric vehicles have quite an advantage over fuel cell vehicles - not to mention the fact that we already have an electricity grid, whereas there is next to no infrastructure for hydrogen.
As an example, Tesla Motors is making a luxury (0-60 in under 4 seconds) battery-electric sports car, with a relatively small production run (probably about the same number as Honda is making of their FCV's), for ~$100,000.
It kind of makes me think these fuel cell vehicles are a big PR move, rather than a practical solution.
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Well Every new technology is expensive in the begining. And even our gas vehicles had dangerous explosions from a tank full of gas and rear end accidents. I think it was the Ford Pinto. But they have made cars with gas tanks fairly safe, and I think they will find a way to make the Hydrogen Cells safe too.
All the technology of the fuel cell Car is really older technology, the electric motors we are already using, brake and control systems are current technology also. The only part that is new is the way the electric motors get their JUICE,
Battery or Fuel Cell. All the rest is basically the same.
So the only thing we have to perfect is the Fuel Cell itself, and stations to refill them.
Now as far as the electric cars you talk about, don't they have to be plugged in and charged from the home or some plugin station?
The big question here is where are we going to get all this extra electricity it would take to charge a huge number of electric cars if they became very popular?
We already have brownouts in some States during the Summer monts. Power shortages are nothing new to us. And it's going to get worse as we populate the earth. So are we going to build more Coal Power Plants or build very expensive Nuclear Plants to make the extra electricity? Nuclear Plants have dangerous waste products to dispose of. Which we don't do very well today. And Coal Burning Plants cause pollution. Not to mention how many Coal Miners we lose each year. Electricity is very costly in many ways.
I'm not against Electric Cars at all, in fact I'd drive one to and from work with no problems. But the overall picture of Electric cars is not a simple solution.
Batteries are not always safe either. They can blow up or catch fire. Even todays Laptops have had some batteries explode or catch fire on their users. They are heavy, they also cost a bunch to replace and
dispose of when they go bad. Which is another enviromental issue.
Each new technology brings along it's own problems to solve.
Just my .02
