In late 2005, I posted the first pages to my hydrogen cars website and about 6 months later I posted the first pages to the blog. I thought it would be fun and entertaining to take a look back over the past 10-plus years to see how the hydrogen car debate has changed.
Back in 2005, hydrogen critic, Dr. Joseph Romm had already published his book, The Hype About Hydrogen: Fact and Fiction in the Race to Save the Climate and he had already debated hydrogen advocate, Dr. Daniel Sperling.
Dr. Romm made several points back then that no longer hold water. For instance, Dr. Romm argued that:
- Hydrogen cars are too expensive as they cost over $1 million apiece to build
- Hydrogen storage is too problematic and will limit hydrogen cars to having half the range of gasoline-powered vehicles
- Automakers should focus on building hybrid cars instead of hydrogen cars since this would be a more practical approach.
So, much progress has been made over the past 10+ years. Hydrogen cars no longer cost $1 million each to build and the first Toyota Mirai’s will be sold in October 2015 for around $57,000 apiece.
Hydrogen storage inside of cars is not the problem it was 10 years ago as both the Toyota Mirai and Hyundai Tucson FCEV have over a 300 driving range, comparable to gasoline-powered cars.
And in regard to hybrid vehicles, automakers have focused on building more. In fact, most hydrogen fuel cell vehicles today are also hybrids. Many automakers now offer different “flavors” of hybrids including both standard and plug-in hybrid models.
To recap, much progress has been made over the past 10 years in regard to hydrogen cars. And, hold on to your bootstraps as the next 10 years will be even more awesome and exciting!
Resources
https://www.hydrogencarsnow.com/index.php/hydrogen-cars/hydrogen-car-debate-has-changed-in-3-years/
https://www.hydrogencarsnow.com/index.php/advocates/the-hype-about-joseph-romm/
https://www.hydrogencarsnow.com/index.php/honda-fcx/
http://www.pbs.org/wgbh/nova/sciencenow/3210/01-point.html
I fully undestand the need for and support the move to the new era of renewable energy. I wish full success to the initiates of hydrogen fuel cars. Clóvis