Hawkeye: Here is an interesting paragraph from the link you cited:
"For the study, Ford used the Fuel Cell Power System spreadsheet program developed by Directed Technologies, Inc., of Arlington,VA, and Ford's Corporate Vehicle Simulation Program to develop computer models of fuel cell powered Aspire, AIV Sable and Econoline vehicles run on hydrogen stored on-board the vehicle. Fuel efficiencies up to 75.7 miles per gallon were estimated, more than double the current fuel efficiencies of all three vehicles, even before any additional fuel economy measures were factored in. "
So we have these computer simulated vehicles running on hydrogen that are estimated to get 75.7 mpg. I assume that there is some sort of translation between hydrogen and gasoline, so that the 75.7 mpg means miles per gallon of gasoline, not gallons of liquid hydrogen. (How do they make that translation, one wonders? What prices are assumed for the various fuels? Are the heavy taxes on gasoline counted or not?)
In any event, Toyota now has for sale in Japan (and in the US in three years, supposedly) a gas/electric hybrid that gets 66 mpg as well as very low emissions. That is a real car, not a simulated one. Over the next decade, on the road experience with the vehicle will certainly allow Toyota to make it much better than it is today.
One wonders whether the hundreds of millions or billions that will have to be spent to bring the fuel cell car into existence will in fact be spent, when the end result may be at best only marginally better than what by then will be a well proven technology. Your thoughts? |
