Hydrogen Fuel Cell Cars Mass Producable by 2018 Says Honda

Honda Motor Co., Japan's third biggest vehicle maker, plans to begin leasing a pricy new hydrogen-powered fuel-cell car in Japan and the United States in 2008.

"By evolving a next model based on this, I think the level of technology will become very close to that of mass-produced ordinary vehicles within 10 years or so," Honda president Takeo Fukui said in an interview with Kyodo News on Friday.
"In 2018, I believe the development (of a fuel-cell car) will have been very advanced," he said. "It will become a real possibility to a large degree."

Fukui told Kyodo that there will be many customers who want to buy a Honda fuel-cell car if it goes on sale for 10 million yen ($83,924) in the general market.

But before the next-generation car becomes more common, Fukui said there are still some technological challenges the automaker needs to overcome.


SOURCE:
PhysOrg.com

This is very cool to hear, and good news to me.

Of course as most realize that switching our cars to Hydrogen
is'nt going ot be the silver bullet needed to halt further degre-
dation of the biosphere by humanity, however it will serve as
a good sized decrease.


Comments, Opinions?

[edit on 12/30/2006 by iori_komei]

Hmm... hydrogen cars for the mainstream would be great but, where do they plan to get all the hydrogen?

Originally posted by halfmask
Hmm... hydrogen cars for the mainstream would be great but, where do they plan to get all the hydrogen?

Water.

Water is made of Hydrogen and Oxygen, and it's relatively easy
to seperate.

Originally posted by iori_komei

Originally posted by halfmask
Hmm... hydrogen cars for the mainstream would be great but, where do they plan to get all the hydrogen?

Water.

Water is made of Hydrogen and Oxygen, and it's relatively easy
to seperate.

Um? Water to split to h and o is actually very difficult for large scale production. My chem teacher 2 weeks ago jsut went over that.

Electric Vehicles powered purely by the grid are 3 times more efficient then Hydrogen Fuel Cell cars. HFEV(Hybrid Flexi-Fuel Electric Veihcle) are even more efficient for now.

I see Bio-Diesel and Sugarcane Alcohol fueled cars as a better choice than Fuel cells. The Hydrogen economy doesn't add up. It takes too much power to split H from H2O for it to balance out.

Brazil is the worlds leader in Alcohol fueled cars and they do quite well with them. Sugarcane works where corn based ethanol is just a farmers subsidy. Corn is a bad source of alcohol as again, it takes more energy to make the alcohol then the alcohol produces.

Bio-Diesel can be made from numerous sources, such as soybeans, and is easy to produce. It burns fairly cleanly and you don't need to modify the engine.

While it is good to see major manufacturers looking into alternatives, I am not too sure the fuel cell is the way to go for mass use. Getting rid of gas guzzlers like the SUV, more hybrids, and better public transportation needs to be implemented as well.

SUV= Stupid Urban Vehicle

Honda a Japanese company that is actually looking towards the future and see's major dollar signs and power while the great USA sits back in the stone ages in it's oil. Why are we not in this race for alternatives? We should be in the forefront of this technology.