Hydrogen fuel cell vehicle reviewed

This is part one of a two part post.

Let’s keep the spotlight on the hydrogen cars for just a moment longer. Respected financial reporting giant Bloomberg sent one of its writers to test drive Honda’s FCX Clarity.  His story is the second part of this post.

The car he drove is a pure hydrogen fuel celled vehicle. It is not a gasoline/hydrogen hybrid. It is considered a breakthrough by many since it’s price to produce dropped from over 1 million dollars per car to approximately $500,000.00 per vehicle.

Honda is road testing 200 of the cars in California by allowing people to lease them for $600 per month. For a major auto manufacturer this is a real breakthrough. It proves they are serious about developing the technology and that they believe it will become a viable and profitable product that will pay them back all their development dollars and more.

Costs to develop hydrogen fuel cell technologies reach well beyond the bumper. The infrastructure needed to deliver the compressed hydrogen gas doesn’t exist as yet. Storage tanks, hydrogen fuel stations, distribution lines, etc. all need to be built. Safegaurding against the extreme explosive nature of hydrogen in this state makes every step of that development even more costly.

“The relation goes deeper than a substitute for gasoline profits because oil refiners already make large amounts of hydrogen and are in a good position to profit from the transition to fuel cell cars,” says the Japanese Nikkei business newspaper in a recent article about Nikkon Oil.

Kinda puts the $200 cost of homemade HHO kits that boost gas mileage by 25-50% (or more) into a different perspective, doesn’t it.

Some conspiracy theorists would have you believe that the high development cost of the hydrogen car is the real reason so many people associated with the auto industry have come out against the homemade onboard hydrogen generation. Others cite a more practical flaw that has been a drag on the performance of the kits themselves. Until a way is found to circumvent the oxygen sensors built in to the engine itself, the HHO kits will not consistently be able to live up to early claims of 100% to 300% plus boosts in gas mileage.

There are several workarounds and inexpensive devices that have recently been created to overcome the sensor issues. But the bad press heaped on the proponents of this type of alternative fuel solution may prove harder to overcome than conspiracy theories are to prove or disprove.

Tags: 1 Million Dollars, Auto Manufacturer, Conspiracy Theorists, Development Dollars, Diesel Fuel, Different Perspective, Distribution Lines, Explosive Nature, Fuel Cell Technologies, Fuel Cell Vehicle, Gas Mileage, Hydrogen Car, Hydrogen Cars, hydrogen fuel cell, Hydrogen Fuel Stations, Hydrogen Gas, Hydrogen Generation, Major Auto, Nikkei Business, Oil Refineries, Oil Refiners, Oxygen Sensors, Petroleum Products, Profitable Product, Storage Tanks