Manufacturers can’t afford to sit back and admire all the impressive work that has been done in making hybrids commercially viable and having people now wanting to buy them. They are now grappling with alternatives to the conventional gasoline engine that works in tandem with the electric component of a hybrid engine.
Biofuels:
Hybrid vehicles such as Ford’s 2007 Escape Hybrid E85 use biofuels to power its internal combustion engine. Ethanol blending is widely used in the United States, Sweden and Brazil as an alternative to petrol, however its environmental credentials have been called in to question with its cultivation being cited as a direct cause of deforestation. There are those who argue strongly that the cultivation of bio-fuels takes up land that could otherwise be used to feed people.
Liquefied Petroleum Gas:
While it has been around for some time as an alternative to petrol its long-term viability in light of global warming has been called in to question. It is non-toxic, non-corrosive, free of tetra-ethyl lead and burns more cleanly than petrol but there is evidence that at low engine loads there is a significant increase in carbon emissions.
Pure Electric Cars:
These would eliminate the need to find a source of power for the combustion engine, but they require powerful batteries and the magnet material is prohibitively expensive given the current market in rare earth substances.
In light of these obstacles, hydrogen fuel-cell electric vehicles (HFEVs) such as the Honda FCX Clarity are providing a focus of attention. Hydrogen is able to be used in cars in two ways: as a source of combustible heat and as a source of electrons for an electric motor. Despite the abundance of hydrogen and its non-polluting properties when burned, the first of these options has never really been a practical option because of the fear of explosion by the highly flammable gas, plus the difficulty of carrying large amounts of fuel and the lack of a re-fuelling network. Consequently, hydrogen fuel cells are being looked at as a way of creating electricity that can be fed into an electric motor to drive a car.
It was reported that since the Honda FCX Clarity was first unveiled in November 2007, there were nearly 80,000 people who expressed an interest in owning one. Production costs of early models were prohibitive as they were in the region of $1million. Since then, Honda has been able to cut its production costs to a more reasonable $120,000 per vehicle. The car is still only available for lease in the United States, Europe, and Japan.
If you want one you’ll need to get to Southern California as that is the state where there are “fast-fill” hydrogen stations. These highly innovative cars can be leased for US$600 a month which includes accident coverage, maintenance, hydrogen fuel and roadside assistance, which assuming you choose to drive the car out of California you’ll need quite a lot. Currently the rate of expansion of hydrogen stations is painfully slow, which is obviously holding back the further development and uptake of the FCX as an alternative form of transport.
In one way the FCX project has got the feel of being a corporate experiment; granted, an interesting and fairly crucial one, even glamorous some might say. It’s no coincidence that by heading for California, they’ve picked one of the global hubs of innovation. If a place can nurture ideas from companies like Apple and Google, then getting the hydrogen fuel-cell car going should be a foregone conclusion for Honda. There is a captive market in California with people only too ready to show their allegiance to this next generation of motor-car.
Honda believes that it could start mass-producing vehicles of this type by 2018, which is difficult to imagine given the challenges to overcome in relation to refueling stations. There is also an issue with the hydrogen being sourced from natural gas through a process of “steaming-out.” In response to this, Honda could do with making a greater play out of the claims that the FCX Clarity is on a par in terms of CO2 efficiency with a battery car using electricity generated from burning natural gas, and much better than the same car using electricity from other states, (54% of which are generated by burning coal).
All of which brings the issue back to our starting point. The reason for the revolution in hybrid vehicles is as a response to the chronic energy crisis faced in many countries and the realization that car ownership is a desire shared by millions of people. Car manufacturers now realize that this is their raison d’être, and as a result have poured heaps of money into the development of this new technology.
- The Evolution of the Hybrid Car
- Examples of Popular Hybrid Models
- Why Hybrid Cars are so Popular
- Barriers to Greater Hybrid Uptake
- Current Car Manufacturer Developments
- Hybrid Car Developments in China
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Hydrogen Power as an Alternative to the Hybrid
Written by Mark Evans
Edited by Stanley Butler
Illustrations by Julianne Harnish
Video Engineering by Aaron Peters
Video Production by IMEX Marketing
Executive Producers
International Tuition Services Ltd
Spheri Dot CA Incorporated