Toyota unveils long-distance fuel-cell car
Toyota announced that they've developed a fuel-cell car with a range of up to 480 miles, which is roughly twice the distance of their existing model. In a real-world situation, two of these new fuel-cell vehicles traveled from Osaka to Tokyo, 350 miles or so, without refueling, while keeping their air conditioning on. They still had about 30% of the fuel left when they arrived in Tokyo.
Full story here...
Here's
Inside Line's take:
Road Trip: Toyota Fuel-Cell Hybrid Vehicle Completes Long-Distance Jaunt
- Permalink | Comments (8)
- Posted by: Bob Holland September 28, 2007, 7:17 AM
- Categories: Green Tech, Toyota
No pics even in that article. I was hoping to see the vehicle they used to do this, at least.
Image now up.
Yeah I'm expecting that this thing must look completely impractical. There's got to be a downside. Maybe mass produced it costs 8 million dollars to manufacture. Or you have to sacrifice a human child to get it started. Or the car only works depending on the phases of the moon.
Something....something!
They're already taking orders...for 2040.
How much of that cargo area is dedicated to fuel cells?
This is yet another example of the progress that is being made with fuel cells. Some will try to make you believe that fuel cells are decades away, but that is a myth.
For a discussion of that and other hydrogen myths, take a look at "The Hype Against Hydrogen":
http://hydrogendiscoveries.wordpress.com/2007/09/24/the-hype-against-hydrogen-setting-the-record-straight-on-six-hydrogen-myths-perpetuated-by-joseph-romm/
If all the problem with hydrogen are a myth then why has countless billions been spent on fuel cell research over the past 50 years and yet the only examples you see are mega dollar research vehicles.
Even if fuel cells do match the hype of the proponents some day, there will still be all the problems of creating and storing hydrogen (10,000 psi!!!, think about the danger there).
Battery technology will arrive before fuel cell technology and make them redundent. Why use electicity to create hydrogen and then a fuel cell to turn the energy back into electricity when you can just use it as electricity in the first place.
2040, LOL.
Thanks for the pic, Bob!