<<Ooops! I keep forgetting; as everyone on this thread knows, fuel cells and buses are just like DRAM chips--the more you produce, the more the cost plummets, until they undercut everything in the market. There--problem solved.>>
Sidney, if I bought 3 regular Ford cars, without engines or drive trains, and paid a team of engineers out in my garage to build and install, piece by piece, a new and unique type of ICE and drive train in each, from a bunch of nonstandard parts, how much do you think it would cost?
And if I then moved this production to an assembly line in an auto plant that would make tens of thousands a year, would the assembly costs for each one not be cheaper by at least a factor of 10? Would the cost of fabricating new and specialized parts by the tens of thousands not be cheaper by at least a factor of 10?
Everything is dramatically cheaper when produced in quantity. If I go to my local printer and ask for 1000 sheets of letterhead, he will charge me next to nothing for an additional 100. When I get software binders made, they won't touch an order of less than 1000. What's the price if I need only 750 of one of the tab inserts? Virtually the same as 1000.
Dupont has already stated that when produced in quantity, their membrane material (Nafion?) would be cheaper by a factor of 10. Everything manufactured, from rubber balls to wing nuts, is at least 10 times cheaper when produced by the ten of thousands, than when produced by the handful.
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