Germans to Reithofer: You first... After you... Grandstander. [Must be that time of the month... er... uh season. Yeah that's it. That's the ticket!]

Peace

Read the article. It runs on gasoline, H2, or mixture thereof. Therefore, it has enhanced mileage, more horsepower, and negative emissions.

Peace

Here is a reason... H2 cleans the air, electricity doesn't.

Peace
marcus

You have no idea how the motor works. The so-called efficiency goes up with H2, and it cleans the air.

Peace
marcus

"If the hydrogen comes from electrolysis, it would be more expensive..."

Nope. You are citing 30+ year-old data. Things have changed since then. :)

"If the hydrogen comes from steam reformed natural gas, it will be more expensive and use more natural gas (and produce more CO2)..."

You must hate Tesla Roadsters. ;)

"Also, how to deliver it? Can't use existing natural gas lines, as hydrogen leaks too readily and embrittles steel."

Nope. Another misunderstood point. H2 does not embrittle.

"Too bulky and expensive to deliver in compressed gas cylinders."

Nope. Still citing old numbers.

Peace
marcus

@John,

Jerry is correct. It has been proven for decades by the Kit Car industry.

Regarding "change"... most industries want stability. A lot of money is tied up in tooling and equipment. Who wants to lose their investment? This was demonstrated when a former GM engineer produced a better spark plug but would require re-tooling of the existing equipment some 8 years ago. It was a pass by the industry.

Peace
marcus

@John

"Are you saying that because H2 is bound into the more complex hydrocarbons in gasoline that a gasoline car is burning hydrogen?"

Hilarious, John... You are saying "what was (clearly) meant..." on one side, yet interpret "... characterize the burn to be a hydrogen one..." as H2 bound to gasoline (given the combustion charge numbers). To answer your question, no.

"If it wasn't clear from context, let me say here, what was (clearly) meant was: "...it will outnumber the *hydrogen fuel-cell vehicle* population by two to three orders of magnitude.""

The problem lies with trying to make the terms *hydrogen* and *fuel cell* synonymous. An H2 fuel cell car is a subset of the H2 car/vehicle.

"Was that not clear?"

Crystal! :D

Peace

"While that's short of President Obama's ambitious goal of 1 million such cars in 2015, it will outnumber the hydrogen vehicle population by two to three orders of magnitude."

A hydrogen car can be one with a fuel cell or combustion motor of sort. You only need to characterize the burn to be a hydrogen one in the latter. [H2 -- 5-7% to 100% of the combustion charge.]

Therefore, the claimed "two to three orders of magnitude" is nullified.

Peace

"I often think...these should be plug-in fuel cell vehicles. After all, they have a battery, they should have a plug."

Daimler has that idea.

Peace

"Volkswagen CEO Martin Winterkorn said hydrogen cars are unviable as a future technology just two weeks ago."

Not exactly... He said "currently". One week before that VW partnered with Ballard, a fuel cell company, to promote their agenda and to promote VW's HyMotion.

Peace