First thing you hear driving a hydrogen car, is a low frequency noise coming from the compressor. Second thing, is a high frequency noise as the electric motor fulfills your need for more speed. Third thing you hear, is the noise coming from the tyres and yourself inhaling. The smoother the road, the less you must breathe. Υour hydrogen car will be friendly to drive but with little space for luggage. Carrying about 4kg of compressed hydrogen, requires a tank twice the size of a normal spare wheel.
Talking about hydrogen, you always get the question about safety. Right now in Europe's roads, drivers are about 95% to blame for accidents, while cars' proportion is 2,5%. So the first answer is that the driver of a fuell cells car, is much more dangerous than the car itself. Moreover, a discussion with Honda's Senior Engineer -Automobile Advanced Technology Research Dept- Thomas Brachmann last week in Frankfurt, has given the feedback we already were aware of: hydrogen tanks, are almost as safe as natural gas tanks. There is a matter of question on whether rear collisions could provoke problems or not, but all car makers answer that this type of crash tests, is the most usual in fuel cells cars. According to Brachmann's statements specifically on the FCX Clarity, there are six hydrogen cells. If one of them encounters some kind of problem, it stops functioning and the other five keep on moving the car. Answering where could we possibly store hydrogen ready for use, he said: "Storing it underground is easy and there is no necessity to be in liquid form". In other words no need to be under pressure: ex. the FCX Clarity's tank pressure is at 5.000psi.
Filling a hydrogen tank of 4kg means having a range of 460km, when driving a car of about 100KW output. In other words, most probably the majority of European citizens will need to refuel once or twice a week. Taking into account the fact that hydrogen is more expensive than petrol and diesel, adding the fact that there is limited network of stations to fill your hydrogen tank, one could easily say that for the time being, leasing hydrogen cars to companies is the best possible action. Car makers get the feedback they want, while executives promote themselves as environmetnally friendly individuals. For someone to buy a hydrogen car today, would be like throwing money out of the window and expecting the wind to blow some back in. Hydrogen will be one of the main electricity suppliers in future vehicles, but not yet. Even when this happens, it won't be the cheapest way of moving. It will only be, by far, one of the cleanest.
Talking about hydrogen, you always get the question about safety. Right now in Europe's roads, drivers are about 95% to blame for accidents, while cars' proportion is 2,5%. So the first answer is that the driver of a fuell cells car, is much more dangerous than the car itself. Moreover, a discussion with Honda's Senior Engineer -Automobile Advanced Technology Research Dept- Thomas Brachmann last week in Frankfurt, has given the feedback we already were aware of: hydrogen tanks, are almost as safe as natural gas tanks. There is a matter of question on whether rear collisions could provoke problems or not, but all car makers answer that this type of crash tests, is the most usual in fuel cells cars. According to Brachmann's statements specifically on the FCX Clarity, there are six hydrogen cells. If one of them encounters some kind of problem, it stops functioning and the other five keep on moving the car. Answering where could we possibly store hydrogen ready for use, he said: "Storing it underground is easy and there is no necessity to be in liquid form". In other words no need to be under pressure: ex. the FCX Clarity's tank pressure is at 5.000psi.
Filling a hydrogen tank of 4kg means having a range of 460km, when driving a car of about 100KW output. In other words, most probably the majority of European citizens will need to refuel once or twice a week. Taking into account the fact that hydrogen is more expensive than petrol and diesel, adding the fact that there is limited network of stations to fill your hydrogen tank, one could easily say that for the time being, leasing hydrogen cars to companies is the best possible action. Car makers get the feedback they want, while executives promote themselves as environmetnally friendly individuals. For someone to buy a hydrogen car today, would be like throwing money out of the window and expecting the wind to blow some back in. Hydrogen will be one of the main electricity suppliers in future vehicles, but not yet. Even when this happens, it won't be the cheapest way of moving. It will only be, by far, one of the cleanest.