Larry Burns and fuel cell
It's an issue that concerns former General Motors R&D chief Larry Burns, now a University of Michigan professor.
“If I could do one thing differently, I would never have uttered the word 'fuel cell,'” Burns recently said to IEEE Spectrum. “I would have called it a hydrogen battery—just another battery!”
Fuel-cell vehicles are, essentially, battery-electric vehicles, as they also store chemical energy that's released in the form of electricity. Only whereas batteries require (still relatively time-consuming) recharging, fuel cells can be merely refilled—given the presence of a yet-installed hydrogen distribution infrastructure, of course.
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From the standpoint of the rest of the vehicle, you need similar components, and the driving experience is virtually the same as what you'd get from a battery electric—albeit with the potential for some significant weight savings versus a large battery pack.
Underscoring all of this is the issue of image, and Burns admits that the term makes the technology seem strange and suggests that as a reason it's scared away investors.
To speculate for the moment, 'fuel cell' might sound like it involves something dangerous and racing-related—or fossil-fuel-related—while batteries are now, to the vast majority, what we're now used to in our smartphones, our tablets, and what we go to bed next to, safely.
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As we move toward another major push for fuel cells, especially in California, that spurs the question: Will there be an attempt to 're-brand' hydrogen fuel cell technology with a new name? And what would that be?
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