Fuel Cell Vehicles

Everyone and their grandmother would love to get their hands on any of the fuel cell vehicles that are on; or about to be on the market today. Is this hype for nothing? Are these vehicles worth trading in your old gas-guzzler? I think most people are afraid of new technology, these cars of course could be scary to some and I’m sure we’ve all heard the stories; Hydrogen fueled cars exploding at mass rates, but it just simply doesn’t work that way. Hydrogen or fuel cell powered vehicles are generally just as safe as a normal gas fueled car and they are that much cheaper to maintain. Fuel cell vehicles have already proven to be so much more efficient than gas fueled vehicles. Toyota has recently announced their efficiency trial results showing that their conventional gasoline vehicle having an efficiency rating of only 16%, while their hydrogen powered vehicle ran at 48% efficiency. That is over 3 times the efficiency of these older, out-dated, gas fueled vehicles, I don’t see much of an argument for the conventional cars here, and it is time to move on! General Motors (GM) has also released similar tests announcing that their fuel cell running on hydrogen has more than twice the efficiency of gas powered engines.

The great benefit of all however is that fuel cell powered vehicles will save the buyer a lot of money in several ways. Since the fuel cell does not actually have any moving parts, the wear and tear on your vehicle will be very marginal compared to that of a conventional gas engine. In an effort to save you even more money, you have the option to plug your vehicle into your home; acting as almost a generator to power your home. This will lower energy bills, and could possibly even earn you more money than you need to dish out. Can you imagine all of this at your disposal from just a vehicle?

Companies currently researching fuel cell for vehicular use:

BMW – The BMW Hydrogen 7 is a powerful dual fueled internal combustion engine powered by liquid Hydrogen.

Ford – The Focus FCV is the equivalent to their conventional Ford Focus only that it uses a hydrogen based fuel cell.

Some of the other most notable fuel cell powered vehicles include; Hyundai (Tucson FCEV), Mazda (RX-8), Nissan(X-TRAIL FCV), Toyota (Toyota Highlander FCHV), Volkswagen and more. Along with regular cars, trucks and SUVs there are also many other hydrogen based transportation methods in the works, some of them are currently operating. Such as buses, motorcycles, helicopters, planes, etc. Anything that runs on some sort of energy has the potential to be powered by these fuel cells, the limits are endless. You can expect these fuel cell vehicles to be main-stream in the public within about 5-10 years, when we’ll be forced into it.