Cars that run on hydrogen and exhaust only water vapour are emerging to challenge electric vehicles as the world’s transportation of the future.
At car shows on two continents, the Los Angeles Auto Show and the Tokyo Motor Show, three carmakers have unveiling hydrogen fuel cell vehicles to be delivered to regular customers as early as next year.
AAP Newsagency reports Korea’s Hyundai will be the first to the mass market in the United States with a hydrogen-powered ix35, also known as Tucson, small SUV for lease.
At the same time Toyota has announced plans for a mass-produced fuel cell car by 2015 in Japan and a year later in the US.
Honda also has revealed a car due for the market in 2015.
Hydrogen cars are appealing because unlike electric vehicles, they have the range of a typical petrol car and can be refuelled quickly.
AAP quotes experts as saying the industry also has overcome safety and reliability concerns that have hindered distribution in the past.
However, hydrogen cars still have a glaring downside, refuelling stations are scarce, and they will be costly to build.
Critics say they’re still a long way from mass production.
Even as battery-powered and hybrid-electric cars publicly took on conventional petrol models in the past few years, carmakers continued to research and develop hydrogen fuel cells, said Paul Mutolo, the director of external partnerships for the Cornell University Energy Materials Centre.
Manufacturers were able to overcome safety and reliability concerns and were limited now only by costs and the lack of filling stations, he said.
Hydrogen cars, Mr Mutolo said, have an advantage over battery-powered electric cars because drivers don’t have to worry about running out of electricity and having to wait hours for recharging.
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It’s very similar to the kind of behaviour that drivers have come to expect from their gasoline cars,” he said.
AAP reports hydrogen fuel cells use a complex chemical process to separate electrons and protons in hydrogen gas molecules.
The electrons move towards a positive pole, and the movement creates electricity.
That powers a car’s electric motor, which turns the wheels.
“You’re literally ripping the electrons from inside the molecule, generating electricity,” Mr Mutolo said.
Since the hydrogen isn’t burned, there’s no pollution and the only exhaust emission is water vapour.
