Jim, thank you for the heads-up on the DaimlerChrysler article in the FTimes, finally found it, will post it below:
1. SURVEY - FINANCIAL TIMES WORLD ENERGY REVIEW: Eco-cars show spurt: FUEL EFFICIENCY by John Griffiths: DaimlerChrysler's Necar 4 has come a long way from the concept cars of the past decade
SURVEY - FINANCIAL TIMES WORLD ENERGY REVIEW: Eco-cars show spurt: FUEL EFFICIENCY by John Griffiths: DaimlerChrysler's Necar 4 has come a long way from the concept cars of the past decade
84% match; Financial Times ; 15-Apr-1999 03:16:18 am ; 841 words
An entirely new era in the history of the car has just been quietly ushered in on the picturesque roads around George Washington's former home, on the outskirts of the US capital.
Quietly in a literal sense - the diminutive Mercedes-Benz A-Class scuttling through the trees emitted only a discreet whine.
Far more significantly, its "exhaust" was emitting water vapour, not pollutants or carbon dioxide, the main "greenhouse" gas.
The practically and commercially viable car powered by an environmentally "clean" fuel cell, rather than a petrol or diesel engine, may not yet be in the showroom. But the speed of its development has been a great surprise.
While the baby Benz may be first, Ford, General Motors and most other large manufacturers have made clear that they do not intend to be far behind.
Both co-chairmen of DaimlerChrysler, Ju rgen Schrempp and Robert Eaton, were on hand to stress that the fuel cell project is for real and that cars will be on sale in just over four years' time. Just as importantly, said Mr Schrempp, the cars will be in the marketplace as genuine competitors, with none of the purchase subsidies that have underpinned many battery-powered vehicle sales.
Present, too, was Firoz Razul, chief executive of Ballard Power Systems, the Vancouver-based company which developed the fuel cell technology and which has formed, in partnership with Ford and DaimlerChrysler, German-based dbb Fuel Cell Engines to produce them.
It is significant that under the terms of the deal, involving an investment of more than Dollars 1bn, dbb is free to sell the systems to other manufacturers. All three partners recognise the need for the technology to become generic if other industries are to respond and create its supporting infrastructure.
In much simplified terms, a fuel cell works by taking oxygen from the air and combining it with hydrogen to produce electric power for motors propelling the car. The availability of maximum torque from startup eliminates the need for a gearbox. Where pure hydrogen is not used, the hydrogen is extracted from methanol or other liquid fuel via an on- board reformulater.
There are still hurdles to overcome, most notably in terms of reducing component costs, the fuel to be used and the infrastructure needed to deliver it. Necar 4 uses pure compressed hydrogen at cryogenic temperatures. It thus emits neither pollutants nor CO2.
But the development of a comprehensive infrastructure for the mass distribution of such a fuel almost certainly rules it out for any vehicle operations except those - such as airports - where vehicles operate locally and can be supplied from a single refuelling site.
Although DaimlerChrysler's development teams are working to a multi-fuel brief which will allow pure hydrogen, methanol or even petrol to be used, its own stance, and that of much of the automotive industry, is that methanol is likely to prove most practical, although it will still emit CO2, albeit at a rate claimed to be currently 30 per cent less than the most efficient internal combustion engine.
Since methanol can be produced ad infinitum from renewable resources such as trees, it offers the prospect of a transport industry no longer having to worry too much about oil drying up in 40 or so years' time. But it, too, needs its own distribution infrastructure, even if it can be fairly readily pro vided through separate tanks and pumps at conventional filling stations.
DaimlerChrysler is investing Dollars 1.4bn to turn Necar into commercial reality. Necar 4's performance, with a fuel cell size putting out the equivalent of 75bhp, includes a 280 mile range, 90 mph top speed and a fuel consumption equivalent to 88 petrol miles per gallon. Such is the current rate of fuel cell system development, DaimlerChrysler and Ballard Power Systems engineers suggest that by the time it reaches commercial production all elements, including CO2 emission levels, will have been substantially improved.
The fuel cell car will not arrive in the marketplace in time to make a substantial contribution to the European motor industry's voluntary commitment to cut carbon dioixe emissions on new cars by 25 per cent by 2008. Even DaimlerChrysler does not expect fuel cell cars to make a significant impact in terms of volume until after 2010, despite the generic nature of the technology - adding more fuel cells creates more power and will allow a quick spread through all sizes of vehicles.
Thus work on new generations of petrol and diesel engines, using such innovations as very high pressure fuel pumps and fuel delivery through an efficient "common rail", is proceeding unabated, with all sorts of variations in between - not least "hybrids" using battery and internal combustion engines combined to increase fuel efficiency and cut pollution. Toyota's Prius hybrid, soon to go on sale in Europe, is already selling more than 20,000 units monthly in Japan.
The EU target is a stiff one. But on present progress, the industry is well on course to meet it. |
