Daimler: Cheaper Hydrogen Cars by 2015
InnovationPosted by Alexander Dramountanis Mon, January 31, 2011 22:31:36
Daimler AG claims that fuel cell powered cars will become much cheaper in the next few years. Daimler is not the first automaker to make this claim though. Toyota has on numerous occasions declared that they will launch a sedan-type fuel cell powered vehicle in 2015 at a price of $50,000 or less.
Daimler seems to share that belief:
"A few years ago, the price was at about 1,500 euros per kilowatt hour [for a lithium ion battery]. In the midterm we should be at a level of 400 euros," Herbert Kohler, head of e-drive and future mobility at Daimler, told Automotive News Europe
Mr. Kohler continues by saying that he expects fuel cell vehicles to be cheaper compared to electrical vehicles within the next five years. Currently Mercedes-Benz provides their B-Class F-Cell for leasing in the U.S for $849 a month (not very cheap if you ask me)
But he also points out that the hardware incorporated in the F-Cell will become considirably cheaper to produce for the next generation. - Automotive News
-I believe that the Hydrogen Fuel cell cars are the future of motoring if we are to end the fossile fuel consumption. We have the technology to do it and there are already numerous concepts of hydrogen powered cars out on the market. The Honda Clarity and BMW 7-series Hydrogen for instance. The difficulty is the production of Hydrogen.
Hydrogen is the most abundant substance in the universe but it's always stuck on something else which makes it complicated and energy consuming to refine and isolate.
Take water for instance, each water molecule contains two hydrogen atoms, and all organic organisms are full of it. But as I said, it requires a vast amount of energy to isolate the hydrogen molecules. And currently the only usable energy for this is electricity, and electricity comes from nuclear powerplants and coal powerplants. If you then consider the complete life cycle of the hydrogen cars, from the production of the hydrogen, to the convertion to energy in the fuel cell, it will harm the environment more than a petrol vehicle. Unless it is produced with renewable energy such as wind or solar energy.
The Way of producing hydrogen in an Eco-friendly and efficient way is still the biggest part of the problem. And when we have the method and hardware to do it, the Hydrogen cars will surely replace the petrol engined ones.
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