hydrogen
-
Even more so than with electric cars, the future of hydrogen vehicles depends on a network of filling stations to allow people to go about their journeys as normal. That future has taken a blow in California, with the news that $27 million in grants for hydrogen filling stations has been revoked by the California Energy Commission. According to the Santa Monica Mirror (via Autoblog Green), the grants have been revoked so the state can reassess the grant process, after complaints that Linde Group and Air Products & Chemicals (AP&C)--two companies set to use around two-thirds of the...
-
Fueling Stations: Electric Cars Trump All Other Alt-Fuel TypesSince about 1930, U.S. vehicles have largely been fueled on gasoline. Diesel passenger vehicles arrived in the 1960s, and there are now about 120,000 locations in the U.S. that offer one or both fuels. Since then, several alternative fuels have been proposed but largely failed to get a...
John Voelcker -
Nanotech Solution To Hydrogen Fuel Puzzle From Brookhaven Lab?A team of researchers at Brookhaven National Laboratory in Upton, New York, has opened the door to a future of clean, cheap hydrogen fuel by ditching a popular platinum catalyst in favor of one based on two low cost alternatives, nickel and molybdenum. Until now, the manufacture of hydrogen gas has...
Talking Points Memo -
Which Carmakers Are Still Serious About Hydrogen Fuel-Cell Vehicles?Hydrogen fuel-cell cars have not progressed as fast as some companies had predicted 10 or 15 years ago. No carmaker sells a fuel-cell vehicle in any kind of volume, but plug-in electric cars are on sale in North America, Europe, and Asia, with tens of thousands sold (and likely more than 100,000...
John Voelcker -
Cross-Country On 2 Gallons Of Gas? Sorta, But Not ReallyIf we told you someone had driven across the U.S. on only two gallons of gas, you'd probably be quite impressed. Cliff Ricketts did just this. After around 2,582 miles and with a support team, he used only 2.15 gallons of gasoline. That doesn't tell the whole story though, because Cliff used other...
Antony Ingram -
Toyota: “We’ll Make Tens Of Thousands Of Hydrogen Cars In The 2020s”Toyota might be expanding its Prius line of hybrid and plug-in hybrid cars, but it hasn’t forgotten about hydrogen fuel cell technology. In fact, at this week’s Geneva Motor Show, the automaker has reiterated its commitment to fuel cell technology by promising it will produce tens of...
Nikki Gordon-Bloomfield -
With such a focus on alternative propulsion for cars, it's easy for forget that every day, millions of other vehicles are used around the world. Bikes, for example, or scooters and motorcycles - we've seen those going electric recently. Fork-lift trucks have been electric for years. But what about farm equipment? How about a hydrogen tractor? Believe it or not, New Holland Agriculture has just revealed details of its second-generation hydrogen fuel cell tractor (via SAE International). We didn't know there was even a first generation, but as befits a new, improved model, the new NH²...
-
Fuel Cell Research Continues: DoE Seeks Viability FeedbackLike many of the paths towards improving the ways in which we use energy and reducing our dependency on oil, hydrogen fuel cells have their plus and minus points. To find out just how feasible fuel cells are, the U.S. Department of Energy (DoE) has issued a request for information (RFI) to seek...
Antony Ingram -
Toyota FCV-R Concept, Hydrogen Fuel-Cell Vehicle In Detroit: Photo GalleryWhile most of Toyota's focus for fuel efficiency remains on its growing lineup of Prius dedicated hybrids, the company said almost two years ago that it would launch a hydrogen fuel-cell vehicle in 2015. Its latest concept vehicle designed around fuel-cell technology is the FCV-R, which it unveiled...
John Voelcker -
First Responder Smart Phone App Helps In Green Car CrashesFor first responders, helping deal with the aftermath of a car crash is a common occurrence. But while dealing with crashed gasoline cars is an everyday event for firefighters, police officers and paramedics, crashes involving plug-in, hydrogen and other green cars are relatively rare. As a...
Nikki Gordon-Bloomfield -
BMW And GM On The Brink Of Fuel Cell Partnership?It's sometimes easy to forget about fuel cell vehicles, with so much emphasis by manufacturers on electric cars and hybrids as a way of weaning ourselves off gasoline. Honda still perseveres however, as does Mercedes-Benz with recent concept cars such as the F125!, shown at September's Frankfurt...
Antony Ingram -
Hydrogen: Entering The Limelight, Or Still Not Ready Yet?Every so often when discussing alternative fuels, the subject of hydrogen comes up. Some carmakers, including Mercedes-Benz and Honda, have been pursuing hydrogen as an alternative to gasoline and diesel for several years now, and at the recent 2011 Frankfurt Auto Show Mercedes created a stir with...
Antony Ingram -
It may have just three seats, look like something from a science-fiction movie and have a forward-hinging front door, but the Gordon-Murray T27 Electric Car has just won the 2011 Future Car Challenge. Held the day before the vintage vehicle run open to pre-1906 cars that has taken place between London and Brighton, England for more than 100 years, the RAC Future Car Challenge aims to promote green vehicles and economical driving styles over the 57 mile course. Now in its second year, the Future Car Challenge paid host to sixty-five cars, ranging from one-off conversions through to production...
-
Fuel-Cell Vehicles Are Likely Coming (A Few): Who's Winning?We're on record with the analysis that electric-car production will far, far outweigh that of hydrogen fuel-cell vehicles built over the next decade, and perhaps longer. Still several carmakers are pressing ahead with plans to build hydrogen-powered vehicles, and now Pike Research has ranked them...
John Voelcker -
Top Gear Tests Nissan Leaf, Peugeot iOn: A Fair Assessment?It's the episode electric car enthusiasts have been itching to see- and now the guys at BBC motoring show Top Gear have tested two electric cars to see whether they make any sense for the car buying public. Now we already know that Top Gear hasn't had the greatest history with electric cars. First...
Antony Ingram -
5,000 Hydrogen Stations By 2020, For Forklifts, UPSes & CarsWe don't hear so much about hydrogen fuel-cell vehicles these days. Just five years ago, before the announcement of either the 2011 Nissan Leaf battery electric car or the 2011 Chevy Volt range-extended electric, several auto companies were in the process of developing test fleets of...
John Voelcker -
Mass-Produced Mercedes Fuel Cell Vehicle Coming In 2014While most major automakers are working on new battery-powered electric cars and plug-in hybrids, some are still investigating the benefits of more advanced fuel cell vehicles that use a hydrogen fuel cell stack to convert hydrogen into usable electric power. One of the leaders in this field is...
Viknesh Vijayenthiran -
Mercedes-Benz Buddies Up To Build More Hydrogen Fuel StationsThere was a time when hydrogen powered cars were all the rage in green car circles. They either came with advanced fuel cell electric drivetrains, the most notable being the Honda FCX Clarity and more recent Mercedes-Benz B-Class F-Cell, two models which regular customers could actually lease, or...
Viknesh Vijayenthiran -
Forget hydrogen. You can mostly ignore natural gas. Even diesel may not grow much. The two fuels that will largely power us for the next 20, maybe 30, years are already here. They are gasoline (with some ethanol in it), and electricity. That's it. That's all she wrote. First, gasoline Those hallowed green visions of a gasoline-free future in our lifetime will not come to pass. We've spent a century building a global economy around oil, and it will likely take most of another century to change it. In other words, gasoline will power some of our vehicles for a long, long time to come. It won't...
-
Can Urine Rescue Hydrogen-Powered Cars?It's been a rough couple of years for cars powered by hydrogen fuel cells. As the drums beat louder for electric cars--the 2011 Chevrolet Volt, Nissan's upcoming EV, and more--the hydrogen chorus is waning. But perhaps there's hope. And perhaps it's as close as your nearest urinal. Or, more...
John Voelcker -
Researchers: 100 Percent Green Energy Possible By 2050We approach energy policy with care here, since GreenCarReports is largely about ... well, cars. But a recent article claims it could take just 40 years to convert the bulk of the world's global energy usage from fossil fuels to renewable energy, primarily wind and solar power. That's not only...
John Voelcker -
Electric-Car Deliveries? Mercedes-Benz Says, Hey, Fuel Cells Too!It's the week of green-car delivery publicity. Nissan delivered its first Leaf in San Francisco Saturday (and three more in San Diego, Portland, and Southern California this week), and not to be left out, Chevy delivered a Volt this morning in New Jersey. Well, damnit, says Mercedes-Benz, we...
John Voelcker -
Want To Lease a Fuel-Cell Vehicle? That'll Be $850 A Month, PleaseFinishing our last few stories from the 2010 Los Angeles Auto Show, we realized we forgot one piece of consumer news: Mercedes-Benz started taking orders for its 2011 B-Class F-Cell hydrogen fuel-cell vehicle last month, and now it has announced the price. So what does it cost to lease a compact...
John Voelcker -
Hydrogen Refueling Ramps Up In NorwayA new hydrogen refueling station supplied by the Danish company H2 Logic will be installed just outside Oslo, Norway in summer 2011 as part of Norway’s “hydrogen highway“. Together with another planned Oslo hydrogen station in 2011, this means Norway will have one of the...
VentureBeat's GreenBeat