It was funny the first time around and the second and third as well, but now it is just an old joke that won’t go away. What I’m talking about is how those who write about or talk about hydrogen cars will eventually ask where the “flux capacitor” is on the vehicle.
Now, this joke is understandable since hydrogen vehicles are the cars of the future and the flux capacitor is a fictional component in the movie “Back to the Future.”
But, the comparison stops there as the flux capacitor helps the De Lorean with time travel and hydrogen cars are powered by fuel cells, internal combustion engines (ICE) or hydrogen-on-demand systems.
Telling a flux capacitor joke to those familiar with hydrogen cars is like going to San Francisco and telling a Rice-A-Roni joke to a local resident or telling a joke to a person about their first or last name. They’ve heard it before, many times, and now it’s old hat.
I don’t usually get on rants like this and sounding like a wet blanket is not what I’m going for, so if you absolutely and positively cannot resist telling that flux capacitor joke the next time your discussing hydrogen cars, then by all means do it.
Just remember that the listener may not have the capacity to listen to the flux capacitor joke and may quickly turn the discussion to how many jigawatts (or jigglewatts) the newest hydrogen car generates.
Hey… my friend, the reason people are “poking fun” at Hydrogen Cars is because this is not really a viable technology for powering cars in the near future, or maybe even far-off future. Even though the public and media are very “hyped-up” and excited about hydrogen cars and many a public figures support hydrogen cars it is not a form of automotive power that is ready or will be ready within even the next 5 years. I could explain this to you in detail but it would be a very long post. For an in-dept explanation read a book called: “The Hype about Hydrogen”. I’ll give you 5 major reasons hydrogen cars are not what you think they are and may never be. One – the public (in general) are not very smart or educated about any future technology and as long as advertising is done correctly, the public can be swayed in almost any direction. Two – petroleum companies want to have a plan for the future for when gasoline is not a viable product anymore, these immensely rich and powerful companies do not want truly renewable cars to be in the future (such as an electric car, which is more efficient than gas [roughly costs 60 cents per gallon], can go up to 250 miles per charge, and with mass produced can have a cost around $25k and batteries that last 8 years). Three – hydrogen cars are about 100% LESS efficient than gasoline (in terms of hydrogen fuel cell technology) – if the joules power output of gasoline is compared to hydrogen engine power output you’ll find them grossly inefficient. Four – There is currently no container that can hold enough hydrogen to power a car equal or further than an electric or gasoline powered car. And finally (most important) FIVE – Even though Hydrogen is the most abundant element in the universe (and Earth for that matter) 90% of hydrogen is paired with Oxygen (for H20 – water) and the cost of extracting hydrogen from water or even from fossil fuels with current technology and even technology that is now under development, hydrogen still remains to be much more expensive than gasoline by almost 300%. So, though I’m sorry to say, because the concept of hydrogen cars seems very promising on the surface, that this technology is just not looking like a viable option.
I’ve read the book and your comments like the book are about 2 to 3 years behind the times now. It’s time to catch up to what is currently going in in hydrogen technology.
My Hydrogen Car has a Flux Capacitor. I don’t have this problem.