Maybe you have heard of the ’sequel’ (said with a sarcastic inflection) “Who Killed the Electric Car?” Make sure you also see the movie about the other time GM used slander rather than quality engineering to fight an opponent. What would the world be like if the Tucker was built… You mean headlights that adjust as you turn? Seatbelts…what are those? (A historical note here: the big three auto makers were well aware of the safety benefits of seatbelts long before they were standard/required by law, they were worried that if they installed them people would think cars were dangerous…so they just didn’t) Safety glass for a windshield? Collapsible and padded steering wheels for safety? A light weight efficient, rear mounted engine? You couldn’t have been describing a car that was being manufactured here in the US in the 1950s?!?!?!?! Well it almost was until GM, Ford, and Chrysler ran “Yet another startup…” into the ground.

If you were shocked by “Who Killed the Electric Car?” you need to realize this very website is part of the mechanism that is used to manipulate people like you into being afraid of the solutions that are right in front of your face. We, the consumer, are responsible for all that has been messed up. We, the survivors, are responsible for fixing it.

If you are able to read the first few posts and not be overwhelmed by the transparent attempt to fool people into thinking this is a legitimate website, then I have two words for you: ignorance is bliss…lol.

A liquid hydrogen tank that can provide a 650 mile range weighs
300 pounds, granted that hydrogen has to be used pretty much
right away.

Hydrogen tanks are not as heavy or heavier than batteries. The
Tesla battery weighs 900 pounds.

Battery electric using today’s technology is a mistake.

Seven hundred billion dollars or so a year goes out to bring OIL
into this country from people who don’t particularly like us. Was
the hydrogen budget ever $700 billion? No, it was $163 million or
so for FY 2010 before Chu cut it down to $63 million. The battery research budget was never comparable to the cost of OIL imports either let alone the cost of the Apollo program. Cutting the hydrogen budget when there is no clear winner shows a lack
of seriousness about the problem on the part of the Obama
administration.

300 lbs of dead battery that takes 8 hours to recharge is still
300 lbs of dead battery. Hydrogen has disadvantages, but
refueling time is not one of them. Leasing batteries because
they are too expensive does not make them affordable and
battery swapping has many problems least of which is that
thieves will have a heyday.

Not answering the question of why you have so much faith in chemical batteries? Lithium mining is harmful to the
environment and there is a limited supply. Yeah we can mine
the ocean, but there are major environmental problems with
doing that. Fuel cell electrodes can be made from carbon
which is readily available and cheap. Carbon is hardly exotic.
The high pressure hydrogen tanks can be replaced with
standard gas tanks that are dual bladder taking up 20%
more space. This tank system can hold hydrnol which can
be reformed on board the vehicle. Name one battery electric
car that goes 500+ miles on a single charge? You can’t
because none exist. The Toyota FCHV vehicle goes 500+
miles now on 10k PSI hydrogen tanks.

The hydrogen cars that traveled from California to Canada going
through Oregon and Washington which are stationless, are hardly
exotic. The Honda FCX Clarity may become available as early as
late 2014. Chrysler and Ford are working together to bring out a
limited production fuel cell car as early as 2010 with commercialization planned for 2015. Toyota is targeting 2015 to
commercialize a fuel cell car. GM is trying to commercial their
fuel cell offerings still. I have named five major auto
manufacturers taking hydrogen research seriously that
don’t need a miracle.

Platinum fuel cells last 50k miles now where carbon based fuel cells
are more resilient and much cheaper. Mass production will bring the cost of high pressure H2 tanks down and by the time these
cars are commercialized high pressure storage of H2 may become
passee. The batteries in fuel cell cars are small and they don’t
have to be Lithium ION batteries.

116 Hern, you are uninformed and wrong about fuel cell research.
You have bought into the political nonsense coming from Chu who
is frankly an expert on bio fuels, he is not an expert on hydrogen.
I don’t believe that an exotic battery will make fuel cells
unnecessary and frankly fuel cells are more mature than batteries.
If a truly exotic battery comes along, it will probably: cost a lot, use
rare materials, and wear out too fast. It’s interesting that GM plans
on a 10 year warranty for the Volt battery yet Tesla doesn’t on any
of it’s vehicles and this car company isn’t planning on guaranteeing
a battery for that long either. Amazing how everyone overlooks that.