Fuel Cell
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Over the past century, gasoline-powered vehicles have gotten simultaneously more complex and more reliable. Service intervals have lengthened, drivers no longer check a car's fluids daily or weekly, and many new-car owners will never once open the hood. Reliability data shows that some of them won't visit a dealer service department except for regularly scheduled services over their first three to five years of ownership. DON'T MISS: Assessing the Honda Clarity range: how electric cars fit in, and why Hybrids added some new complexity—high-voltage battery packs and electronics—to...
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Chevrolet Colorado ZH2: first ride in hydrogen fuel-cell Army truck
Olive drab isn't the only green thing in the U.S. Army. Currently undergoing testing at Fort Carson in Colorado, the Chevrolet Colorado ZH2 hydrogen fuel-cell vehicle illustrates the unlikely intersection between eco-friendly powertrains and the demanding needs of a vehicle that may be deployed to...
Andrew Ganz -
Hyundai targets 1,400 units a year of next-gen fuel-cell vehicle: report
It's public knowledge that Hyundai plans to replace its aging Tucson Fuel Cell utility vehicle with an all-new hydrogen-powered vehicle, and that it has big plans for the future. The Korean automaker showcased the FE Fuel Cell concept in March to provide a glimpse of what to expect when the...
Sean Szymkowski -
How California and China plan to push for millions of zero-emission vehicles
California has long been the nation's leader in zero-emission vehicles, with initiatives dating more than two decades. Now the Golden State is partnering with China, the world's largest car market, to accelerate that country's zero-emission goals. The state announced a new initiative with China, in...
Sean Szymkowski -
Honda Clarity Electric, Plug-In Hybrid: first drives, impressions
In March, we spent most of a day with the Honda Clarity Fuel Cell, the first of three variants of the Clarity mid-size sedan to go on sale in the U.S. Leases of the hydrogen-powered Clarity will be limited for the foreseeable future to residents of those areas of California near to hydrogen fueling...
John Voelcker -
Toyota, Honda, Nissan, other Japan firms to fund hydrogen fueling
Earlier this year in Europe, 13 companies joined forces to create the Hydrogen Council, a global initiative to discuss and promote the use of hydrogen as a renewable source of energy. In the United States, GM and Honda have partnered up to build a production plant in Michigan that will roll out...
John Voelcker -
Innovation has no secret for GM and after tapping into hybrid and electric engine technologies, fuel-cell is its next target. In an interview with Trucks.com, GM’s global fuel-cell business director Charles Freese seemed confident that hydrogen will become a next big step in transportation. General Motors has been involved in fuel-cell technology for a little more than 50 years now. DON’T MISS: Military hydrogen-powered Chevy Colorado ZH2 launches In 1966, the automaker introduced the Electrovan prototype that became the first hydrogen fuel-cells vehicle on the road. The...
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Assessing the Honda Clarity range: how electric cars fit in, and why
The 2017 Honda Clarity Fuel Cell is the only model of Honda's newest sedan presently on sale, though an all-electric version will arrive later this year. The hydrogen-powered mid-size sedan with a rated 366 miles of range is the one that's gotten by far the most publicity from Honda, as its...
John Voelcker -
Mercedes denies CEO said it will turn away from hydrogen fuel-cell vehicles (updated)
Large global automakers customarily pursue research into multiple types of technologies and future powertrains at the same time. Sometimes they pan out, sometimes they don't. German automakers have only really come around to devoting their efforts to plug-in electric cars in the last five or six...
John Voelcker -
Energy use for hydrogen fuel-cell vehicles: higher than electrics, even hybrids (analysis)
It's now clear that the zero-emission vehicles of the future will be powered by electric motors. The electricity to power those motors, however, will come from one of two competing technologies: high-capacity batteries or hydrogen fuel cells. The debate over which technology is superior, which has...
John Voelcker -
UPS electric van with fuel-cell range extender to be tested in California
Considerable skepticism remains that passenger vehicles powered by hydrogen will become a major part of U.S. sales any time soon—or ever. Quietly, however, analysts suggest that hydrogen may provide a solution to the different challenges of producing zero-emission heavy trucks and delivery...
John Voelcker -
Is Toyota's hydrogen fuel-cell fervor foolish, or foresighted? (with charts)
Toyota's staunch, unswerving support for hydrogen fuel cells has astonished and aggravated many in the electric vehicle community. For some of them, the technology is at best an inferior solution—and at worst is fossil fuel-friendly vaporware, a Judas in Jesus's clothing, if you will. With...
Matthew Klippenstein -
Large auto companies are likely aircraft carriers: it takes a long time for them to change direction, and far longer yet to get them aligned on a new course. To various degrees, the world's carmakers have started to produce and sell vehicles that plug-in, whether for some or all of their travels. Except Toyota. The Japanese company that's not only one of the world's three largest makers but also the most profitable by far of the three has refused to develop battery-electric cars for two decades now. DON'T MISS: Toyota: 'No One Wants Us To Build Electric Cars' (Oct 2014) Toyota has firmly...
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Toyota 'Project Portal' hydrogen fuel-cell heavy-duty semi tractor as proof of concept
The challenges of building fueling infrastructure for passenger cars powered by hydrogen fuel cells are well known by now. Toyota, Honda, and Hyundai now lease low volumes of fuel-cell vehicles in selected areas of California where a few dozen hydrogen fueling stations are now up and running. The...
John Voelcker -
Genesis GV80 fuel-cell concept SUV at NY auto show
These days, it's all but de rigeur that concept cars from major global automakers be shown with some form of alternative propulsion. They may preview future production vehicles powered by plain old conventional gasoline engines, but a plug-in hybrid or other greener powertrain shows the automaker...
John Voelcker -
All the challenges for hydrogen fuel-cell cars laid out
Twenty years ago, Toyota took the automotive industry by surprise with the Prius. The Japanese giant is attempting to revolutionize driving again, this time by bringing hydrogen-powered cars to the masses. However, it now faces a completely different set of challenges than when it set out to get...
Green Car Reports -
Tesla Model X electric car vs Toyota Mirai fuel-cell car: CA road trip
The ability to travel long distances has long been a distinguishing feature of Tesla's luxury electric cars, whose Supercharger fast-charging network now offers access to essentially every part of the 48 continental states. But where hydrogen infrastructure exists, which can cover a long road trip...
Green Car Reports -
2017 Honda Clarity Fuel Cell: first drive of hydrogen-powered sedan
There are now three different vehicles powered by hydrogen fuel cells on sale in California, and we've driven them all. The 2017 Honda Clarity Fuel Cell is the first one in which we were able to forget about the powertrain and simply drive. It's the best of the three, although that won't matter...
John Voelcker -
If green cars can reduce emissions, why shouldn't their advertising do the same? That's the theory behind a series of billboards in relevant California markets that advertise the Toyota Mirai hydrogen fuel-cell sedan. But these billboards will do more than try to attract the eyes of potential customers stuck in traffic on the highways below their perches. DON'T MISS: Toyota Mirai touted in ad on electric-car charging station The 37 billboards in Los Angeles and San Francisco are coated in a material that actually scrubs nitrogen-oxide emissions from the air. Undertaken in collaboration with...
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What's the most important fuel-cell car so far? Poll results
About 600,000 plug-in electric cars have been sold in the U.S. in the past 10 years. The number for hydrogen fuel-cell vehicles is lower: as of the end of last month, it's below 1,600. Nonetheless, Honda, Hyundai, and Toyota today offer zero-emission vehicles powered by hydrogen in limited areas of...
John Voelcker -
Hyundai FE Fuel Cell Concept previews hydrogen-powered SUV coming in 2018
The Hyundai Tucson Fuel Cell was actually the first hydrogen fuel-cell vehicle offered to U.S. drivers in recent years. The 2016 Toyota Mirai that followed it has now outsold Hyundai's hydrogen-powered SUV, but it's been known for a couple of years that the Korean maker will replace that model. At...
John Voelcker -
Honda: hybrids, plug-ins, fuel cells to be two-thirds of Europe sales by 2025
Honda's green-car strategy for the next decade or so appears to be coming into greater focus. In place of its previous mild hybrids, the Japanese automaker is planning to produce much higher volumes of its two-motor hybrid powertrain, as seen first in the Accord Hybrid mid-size sedan. It also...
Stephen Edelstein -
Fuel-cell range extender for Nissan e-NV200 electric taxis announced by Symbio
Advocates of battery-electric and hydrogen fuel-cell cars are often at odds over which powertrain technology is the more practical solution to reducing emissions. But French firm Symbio continues to experiment with ways to combine the two. It fits hydrogen fuel cells as range extenders for...
Stephen Edelstein -
Shell hedges bets, adds hydrogen fuel to 1st U.K. station
Anticipating a possible decrease in fossil-fuel consumption from the mass deployment of zero-emission vehicles, one of the world's largest oil companies is hedging its bets. Royal Dutch Shell is becoming increasingly involved in hydrogen fueling infrastructure, which will be needed if fuel-cell...
Stephen Edelstein