I mentioned the quantum leap needed. One doesn't find a quantum leap unless they look. .
The thing is, science is still science. As Brian so elequently detailed in his response, it's not just generating it...it's the storage aspect and risk aspect.
It's only a matter of time before a hydrogen car goes full Hindenburg after a wreck. It's only the fact that there's such a token amount of them out there that this hasn't happened yet.
Just look here, even without the tremendous costs required to make the right side happen, it's blatantly obvious which type of "fuel" is the way to go ...
Yep, been saying that since page 1 here. Along with all the lossy realities of actually generating hydrogen to begin with (again, as demonstrated by Brian) only to end up just converting it back to electricity at the end anyways, it seems like a stupid system to me.
Oil is only going to go down in price over the long term. The world burns 1 million less barrels of oil today then we did yesterday. This has been happening for 3 years now. Also why saudi is trying to move as much as possible, before it's worth a lot less.
Yet mysteriously, our gas prices are going up. and the price of oil, despite market sensibility (reduced consumption, increased supply) keeps climbing.
Mysterious, huh? And I doubt it's going to stop. The oil companies, the physical producers, and countries that export oil are awesome at manufacturing all sorts of reasons to prop up the price of oil.
I doubt it's going to get better. For some strange reason the law of supply and demand doesn't seem to apply to oil.
But the world is not just cowboys and rednecks or green people. Somehow, the world is forgetting all the people in between .... there's people, families who just need something little bigger with convenient towing capabilities. If people buy Pacifica vans, why would they not buy Equinox with 20kWh battery or something along the lines so they can get to work just on electrons and haul stuff far and away on the weekend using ICE where needed. There's definitely market for that ...
The problem at this point is still consumer acceptance and consumer misunderstanding, the latter being the biggest issue, and they go together.
One thing that would majorly dispel that for consumers would be something like a mega version of the Volt, in an in-demand vehicle like the mini-pickup/crossover market. A 60kW battery that'll take it hundreds of kilometers on battery alone, and a range extender that'll take you anywhere you want to go on top of that would
instantly eliminate the age old "Dead battery on the side of the road!" har-har's that always flood any EV discussion online.
And then the automakers actually need to push the facts about how cheap electric travel is compared to gas. THIS is the part people don't get - again, you only need to look as far as any EV topic on Facebook to see the inevitable "HAHAHAH stupid electric cars, they cost more to drive than gas!" argument.
Would a 60KW vehicle with a range extender be a stepping stone vehicle like the Volt? Sure - eventually people will realize that they don't really need the REX, and eventually charging infrastructure will get to the point where it'll further cement the lack of need for a REX.
But, that assurance of knowing that they'll never be stranded on the side of the road, in a vehicle people actually want (The 4 door sedan/Volt is past is a much more limited market vs a Crossover) will be a big breaking point IMHO.
Hydrogen fuel cell vehicles without refueling infrastructure everywhere are equally dead in the water. The fortunate thing is that an EV can be charged (if slowly) at any ordinary receptacle and the distribution network for electricity generally already exists
Exactly, something that a lot of people want to conveniently discount all the time.
At this point I only have a single Level 2 charger at home, so our second Volt is charging on a Level 1. And despite being slower, it gets the job done just fine.
Yes, every receptacle is a "gas station" for EV's.
