Nearly all of the major automobile makers have significant fuel cell research initiatives. GM exhibited the Sequel prototype crossover in 2005, its third hydrogen concept car. The company has invested $1 billion in fuel cell vehicle research. GM is leasing 100 fuel cell equipped Equinox crossover vehicles to customers as a test, starting in early 2008. The Equinox will go about 200 miles on a fill up. Initially, the vehicles will be provided to government officials and business leaders in New York City, Washington D.C. and Los Angeles. GM hopes to have 1,000 fuel cell-powered cars and trucks on the road by 2010, 10,000 by 2013 or 2014, and 100,000 by 2015. However, the financial and technical hurdles will be high, and GM has assigned itself a daunting task in attempting large-scale launch of fuel cell vehicles. Eventually, the firm hopes to build 1 million fuel cell vehicles yearly at a cost comparable to that of cars with four cylinder gasoline engines. Royal Dutch Shell is cooperating with GM’s Equinox launch by opening as many as 13 hydrogen fueling stations in the metro areas where the first 100 vehicles will hit the road.
One of GM’s thoughts for eventual commercial development is a wide variety of car and truck bodies that will mount onto a single, radical “skateboard” chassis design, which integrates the engine directly into the chassis. The skateboard stores fuel cell stacks and hydrogen supplies as well as circuitry that manages the flow of electric power through the various systems necessary to stop, start and maneuver the vehicle. The chassis will include a docking port that links the body above to the electronic control systems. Each vehicle will be equipped with software that corresponds to the type of driving associated with the selected body style. Sporty cars and light trucks will have software that provides rapid acceleration, responsive steering and rigid suspension. The software for family cars and touring sedans will provide less pickup, easier steering and a more comfortable ride, even though the underlying chassis will be the same. However, the firm may find it faster and more cost-effective to place fuel-cell technology in vehicles that have already been designed as gasoline engine platforms.
GM is not the only manufacturer with significant interest in fuel cells. Honda hopes began leasing test models of its “FCX” fuel cell-powered car to small numbers of customers in the U.S. and Japan in 2009. It already had about 30 FCX Clarity sedans in operation at the end of 2006, with $600 per month prototype leases on a small number of vehicles in the Los Angeles, California area in 2007. Honda’s goal is to be able to offer fuel cell cars at a cost comparable to gasoline powered cars by 2020. Toyota began making a small number of fuel cell powered cars available on 30 month leases in July 2006. It is also leasing 12 such cars to universities and corporations in California. DaimlerChrysler invested about $1 billion in its own fuel cell initiative, and by the end of 2006 had about 100 such vehicles in operation. As of 2007, Ford had 30 fuel cell powered Focus compact cars in customer trials. Also in 2007, Chrysler (newly separated from Daimler AG) joined the California Fuel Cell Partnership, a consortium of automakers, energy providers, fuel cell technology companies and government agencies.
Meanwhile, BMW unveiled a hybrid of sorts in 2006 that allows drivers to use either hydrogen or gasoline at the flick of a switch. (The hydrogen is not used in a fuel cell. Instead, it is burned as a fuel in an internal-combustion engine that ordinarily would burn gasoline.) The car uses a V-12 engine that can be powered by either fuel. Since more hydrogen than gasoline is required to run an engine the same number of miles, the prototype has a hydrogen tank that utilizes space usually reserved for luggage or passengers. The use of hydrogen offers multiple technical challenges.
Marketability of fuel-cell-powered vehicles will depend both on their initial cost and the ready availability of hydrogen in convenient filling stations. Prototype cars are on the road in a few cities, and large-scale production has the promise to eventually make such vehicles affordable and competitive, but the obstacles are significant.
After the initial enthusiasm over fuel cells, during which many governments planned to introduce large numbers of fuel cell power plants and vehicles, energy agencies have scaled back their goals. The difficulties surrounding the technology are proving much more stubborn than they initially appeared to be. For example, Japan, one of the largest proponents of fuel cell technology, initially wanted 50,000 fuel cell vehicles on the road by 2010. Although the government is still putting substantial resources into fuel-cell-related efforts, it does not expect to have widespread use of fuel cells until 2030. California, meanwhile, originally wanted 10% of all vehicles sold in the state to be zero-emission vehicles (ZEVs) by 2003. The state dropped its targets dramatically. Initially, GM was striving to have fuel cell cars on the market before 2010, a goal that clearly cannot be achieved on large scale. However, GM is betting on the technology to help resurrect it from its financial woes and continues to invest time and money in the concept.
Unfortunately, fuel cells remain grossly expensive due to their limited production and the industry’s current low-technology base. For example, the cost of one 200-horsepower fuel cell system runs around $75,000. Moreover, hydrogen is not readily available to drivers. GM’s head of strategic planning projects that 12,000 stations in the largest cities across the U.S. would put 70% of the population within two miles of a hydrogen filling station. The cost would be about $1 million per station. Honda is promoting a Home Energy Station in Southern California that it hopes will convert natural gas into enough hydrogen to power fuel cells that could run a family’s vehicle, as well as supply electricity and hot water for the family home.
Another problem is that many people still have concerns about the safety of hydrogen. Naturally gaseous at room temperature, storing hydrogen involves using pressurized tanks that can leak and, if punctured, could cause explosions. It is also difficult to store enough hydrogen in a vehicle to take it the 300+ miles that drivers are used to getting on a tank of gasoline. To do so, hydrogen must be compressed to 10,000 pounds per square inch and stored on board in bulky pressure tanks.
One idea for storage is cooling the hydrogen to a liquid state and storing it in a cooled tank, but this requires constant refrigeration. A mid-term solution to the problem of creation and storage of hydrogen is to use existing fuels, such as methane, gasoline and diesel. These fuels can be broken down in the car, on-demand, to produce hydrogen, and then power the fuel cell. Although this would relieve the hydrogen storage problems, it would not remove the need for fossil fuels and it would still produce emissions such as carbon dioxide, though in reduced quantities. The next step would be to create hydrogen on-demand from ethanol, thereby creating less pollution.
Meanwhile, UPS has been testing a fuel-cell-powered vehicle in Ann Arbor, Michigan, and another in Ontario, California. Honda and Toyota are both testing fuel-cell-powered cars in California and Japan. Ford built a hydrogen internal combustion engine as an interim step to fuel cells, as a V10 intended for trucks or vans.
GM is gambling hugely on hydrogen and has gotten a boost from the U.S. Department of Energy. The two signed a five-year, $88 million agreement in 2005 to build a fleet of 40 hydrogen fuel vehicles by 2009. Meanwhile, GM is pitching the idea of fuel cell cars to the Chinese government as a long-term solution to China’s environmental challenges and needs for imported petroleum. Since China may soon lead the world in the construction of state-of-the-art nuclear power plants, it isn’t a far leap to see that nation using nuclear power to create hydrogen on a massive scale.
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