Report: Your hydrogen car won’t be ready for at least 15 years

July 19, 2008 · Print This Article

Jason Bateman will be pulling up to the red carpet in a hydrogen Beemer and Jamie Lee Curtis is rocking a hydro-Honda, but it’ll likely be a while before you and I are cruising the strip in Hindenburg Specials.

A new report says that it will at take least 15 years for any auto manufacturer to bring a hydrogen fuel cell vehicle to the mass market. What’s more, that estimate assumes government subsidies of around $55 billion dollars to help the project along.

The main obstacles to rapid adoption of hydrogen

technology for cars are high cost and lack of an existing fueling infrastructure. It’s estimated that fuel cell vehicles produced in low volumes probably cost around $1million to $2million each, which explains why they’re being leased rather than sold outright.

What can we learn from the report? Well, whether we want to get a handle on our energy/global warming crises, we’re probably better off focussing on hybrids and plug-ins for the instant future and looking at fuel cells as a long-term solution.

via [Discover]

[Source] Patrick Metzger

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