Hydrogen Cars Now

Some say hydrogen cars are the future, but in reality they are here now (just ask Hyundai and Toyota). When H2 cars become the status quo, the U. S. can lessen its dependence upon foreign oil, achieve lower prices at the fuel pumps and cut down on the greenhouse gases that produce global warming.

The future of H2 cars is not a pipe dream, as there are already many hydrogen fuel cell vehicles (FCV’s) and H2ICE (hydrogen internal combustion engine) vehicles on the roads. California, Japan and the European Union (especially Germany) have many H2 cars being used as fleet vehicles now.

In 2005, Honda leased the first commercial FCV to a family in Redondo Beach, California. In 2008, the Honda FCX Clarity became the first production line built fuel cell lease vehicle rolled out to the same family plus dozens others. In late 2012, Hyundai started building production line fuel cell vehicles for sales to fleet managers worldwide.For the past 36 years, the Los Alamos National Laboratory (LANL) has been conducting research on fuel cells for use in transportation, industry and residential use.Unlike many of the hybrid and “green” vehicles currently on the market, hydrogen fuel cells can offer the promise of zero emission technology, where the only byproduct from the automobiles is heat and water vapor. Current fossil-fuel burning vehicles emit all sorts of pollutants such as carbon dioxide, carbon monoxide, nitrous oxide, ozone and microscopic particulate matter.

This cluster model involves building hydrogen fueling stations in population centers like Los Angeles and San Francisco and rolling out hydrogen cars in the same locations. Afterwards, more large cities will get clusters of H2 refueling stations and fuel cell cars. Eventually these clusters will need to be connected through infrastructure.

The conversion from gasoline-powered internal combustion engines to hydrogen-powered internal combustion engines is agreed upon by most scientists and engineers to be a particularly easy transition and would buy time for fuel cell cars to be fully adapted.