BMW Begins Testing Fuel Cell Vehicles Co-Developed With Toyota

BMW will test a vehicle powered by hydrogen fuel cells -- developed with Toyota -- for the first time on public roads this month as the German automaker looks to expand clean-car offerings after rolling out the battery-powered i3 in 2013.

The company plans “a technically mature, customer-ready vehicle some time after 2020,” Matthias Klietz, head of powertrain research, told journalists at BMW’s test track here. “By around 2025 to 2030, we expect fuel cell cars to have an established presence, but there are challenges that remain, like building the refueling infrastructure.”

Read Article

TheSteve - 7/2/2015 11:24:18 AM

+2 Boost

Hydrogen fuel cells are a dumb idea for consumer transportation. Here's why:

Fuel Cell:
----------
(1) Consume a massive amount of electricity to extract and convert hydrogen into a form that's usable by the fuel cell. (Let's say 10 units of electricity)
(2) Hydrogen fuel is used by fuel cell to produce a comparatively small amount of electricity. (Let's say about 1 unit of electricity)
(3) Electricity turns the electrical motor(s) to provide vehicular propulsion (electrical energy into kinetic energy)

Restated, you need lots and lots of electricity to make the hydrogen fuel, and the fuel cell generates a much smaller amount of electricity for actual use.

Fuel cells were used on space vehicles because they didn't have to be cost efficient or environmentally sound. They just had to deliver the maximum power with the minimum weight. In a passenger car, it just doesn't make sense... unless we find a source of abundant and cheap electricity, and then expand our electrical grids substantially to handle the extra power supply and consumption.

For now, and for the foreseeable future, fuel cell cars are just an interesting idea without a practical application. Electric trains, subways, and streetcars make much more sense.

TheSteve - 7/2/2015 4:47:56 PM

+1 Boost

Correction: When I wrote "unless we find a source of abundant and cheap electricity", I should have written "unless we find a CLEAN AND SUSTAINABLE source of abundant and cheap electricity". There's no point in selling electricity as "clean" if a coal-fired generating station created it.