Hydrogen Cars

[LexKid630]

I was watching a show last night about H2 cars, and i think it's a great idea since the byproduct is H2O, and we can never run out of H2...!!

When do you think we'll start to see hydrogen cars on the road? Since the gas prices are so high it's time to mass produce these new cars that don't require gasoline. The only bad thing i can think of is tanking up...i'm not aware of any hydrogen tanks around here LOL

what do you guys think? Do you think they're a good idea?

[katzjamr]

Most people think hydrogen mass produced cars are about ten years away. Twenty at the outset. The Chinese feel that hydrogen will be the best choice for their rising middle class, they dont want to fight a war for the amount of oil it will take to sustain thier automotive needs. At this time China is working harder than any other country trying to make hydrogen fuel for cars a reality. China does not have the gas station infrastructure to worry about as we do in the usa, they will develop hydrogen fueling sites at employees places of work, ideally hydrogen will run the needs of the buildings also. The current Car and Driver has an interesting article regarding hydrogen.

[RX in NC]

As many of us have been saying for years, hydrogen power is the future of the automotive industry and the sooner the public realizes it, the sooner we'll see the manufacturers actually begin moving the technology into the mainstream. We face significant infrastructure and distribution challenges as well as daunting technological challenges in creating hydrogen fuel both economically and in environmentally responsible processes.

At the current pace, we're at least a decade away from mass-produced and practical hydrogen vehicles. But when they arrive, they will revolutionize the automotive world like no other technology before them.

Current hybrid technology is simply a stop-gap in the timeline to hydrogen. If a now-unknown company can come along and bridge the gap to safe and affordable hydrogen vehicles within the next five years, they will be the world's next Microsoft. You young engineers out there could change the way the world transports itself if you can jump on this bandwagon now and get the process flying instead of crawling....

[indiasfinest]

LA has two hydrogen stations already

[mburnickas]

I was watching a show last night about H2 cars, and i think it's a great idea since the byproduct is H2O, and we can never run out of H2...!!

When do you think we'll start to see hydrogen cars on the road? Since the gas prices are so high it's time to mass produce these new cars that don't require gasoline. The only bad thing i can think of is tanking up...i'm not aware of any hydrogen tanks around here LOL

what do you guys think? Do you think they're a good idea?

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Well, it will be a long time I feel. Hell, we have the fuel cells for many cars and well, I can't count how many layoff there have had on one hand!

I sure as hell do not want to drive a "h" bomb around....

[SW03ES]

I sure as hell do not want to drive a "h" bomb around....

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Why?

[LexKid630]

They have been working on making the H2 cars safer, so in the case of a colision, it won't blow up LOL

[lexus411]

Hydrogen is a very unstable gas.

[LexKid630]

Hydrogen is a very unstable gas.

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Remember the blimp that exploded b/c of the hydrogen? It's a very unstable gas.

[RX in NC]

Rest assured that there will be no Hindenburg automobiles zipping along our highways and byways when hydrogen vehicles make their widespread debut. Any hydrogen-based fuel will be sealed and protected in thoroughly-engineered casks, probably very similar to the types of casks that nuclear waste is transported in today. With zeppelin technology in the 1930s, hydrogen gas was contained in little more than huge canvas bags that were treated with airplane wing fabric dope. Those things truly were flying bombs, and that's why the blimp industry fell off the face of the earth after the Hindenburg disaster.

Today, helium provides the lift and blimps have made a small comeback. I would have no concerns taking a spin on one of the Goodyear blimps if I ever have the opportunity to do so.

[SW03ES]

What he said.

[mburnickas]

What he said.

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Here is the company I work for..

UTC Power

Been around for 30+ years.....been working cars details for almost 10 years....still waiting.

It is nice still you get in an accident and boom...Need more design time. like lots of years here.

[Agnt Tinkles]

hydrogen still will not completely solve the need for oil. to get hydrogen, electricity is needed to break the oxygen from water molecules and currently we get much of our electricity from burning oil, natural gas, or coal. so hydrogen only moves the burning of petroleum from our cars back to the power plants. the need for oil will still be there unless we completely switch solar, wind or hydroelectric for our energy needs.

[indiasfinest]

i dont get why our government does just add more wind, solar, and geothermal plants...maybe if we werent in iraq we could use that money on reseach and develpment....

[LexKid630]

i dont get why our government does just add more wind, solar, and geothermal plants...maybe if we werent in iraq we could use that money on reseach and develpment....

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how much was it again? 87 BILLION!!!!

imagine what that could have done here in the U.S.

[indiasfinest]

87 billion...hmm end poverty??...eliminate the need for gas??? or kill our soldiers in iraq and seperate them from their families

[LexKid630]

87 billion...hmm end poverty??...eliminate the need for gas??? or kill our soldiers in iraq and seperate them from their families

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but Bush is our president and he needed to finish his daddy's war.

[indiasfinest]

thats right...who the hell voted from him anyways..not my parents...even though we do live in texas

[LexKid630]

thats right...who the hell voted from him anyways..not my parents...even though we do live in texas

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I voted for him for his first term only because i couldn't stand that other idiot. Not for his second though.

[blake918]

87 billion...hmm end poverty??...eliminate the need for gas??? or kill our soldiers in iraq and seperate them from their families

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but Bush is our president and he needed to finish his daddy's war.

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That's nice of you to give all of the credit to President Bush, but the last time I checked this is a democracy, and the US Senators that we elect voted on the legislation to invade Iraq.

[LexKid630]

87 billion...hmm end poverty??...eliminate the need for gas??? or kill our soldiers in iraq and seperate them from their families

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but Bush is our president and he needed to finish his daddy's war.

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That's nice of you to give all of the credit to President Bush, but the last time I checked this is a democracy, and the US Senators that we elect voted on the legislation to invade Iraq.

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The president always gets the blame LOL

[blake918]

The president always gets the blame LOL 

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Only in the case of the media and people who know zilch about political process, I guess they go hand-in-hand.

[SW03ES]

Lets not turn this into a political flamewar guys.

[blake918]

I'm not intending this to be that, I'm just sharing factual info that the US Senate is allowing the finish of Daddy's war, it's not just Junior's doings, and anyone who thinks otherwise should read-up on this matter before posting! lol

[branshew]

You can blame them all - democrats, republicans, president, congress, cia, military, and most importantly the American population.

For whatever reasons Bush wanted the war (to clean up his dad's mess, stimulate a sagging ecomony, increase his approval rating as a wartime pres, etc.) He had the CIA put together some "intelligence," gave that to his lackeys so that they could sift through all of the real pieces of info only to find the three or four sketchy reports of unconfirmed WMDs and uranium sales. They were then passed over to the spin doctors and made to piggyback on our fears after 9/11. This whole bill of BS was then sold to the senate, house(Both parties were involved Lieberman pushed as hard as Frist to take out Sadaam.) , and most importantly the American people. How many people wrote their Congressman or Senator to speak out against going to war? Most of us were brainwashed and didn't care what happened as long as we could keep consuming and didn't have to make any sacrifices in our daily lives. Let's face it - most of us have not been personally affected by the war in any way shape or form and it's much easier to tolerate it when we can just sit back and watch the death toll numbers on our plasma TVs.

If Bush and all politicians Dem. or Rep. had been real leaders after 9/11 they would have told Americans that they have to make sacrifices, but instead they told us to go shopping. WTF? If we had had to give up something to fight the war on terror, had to ration fuel, steel, food, etc. then we'd have been much more reluctant to go to Iraq. Look at the sacrifices this country made for the War effort during WWII and you'll know why we have avoided mass conflict like that for the last 60 years. We sit here so detached from the reality of the situation that we don't even care enough to make an effort to stop it. We have made sacrifices for the war in Iraq: Our international reputation as a human rights leader, our fiscal stability and soundness, and most importantly the lives of thousands of Americans and Iraqis.

Thomas Jefferson said that we should tear up and re-write the Constitution every few years as a form of revolution - and I have to agree. It's sad to me when we live in a time where Politicians are more concerned with tax cuts and corporate welfare than paying for the war they created and the welfare of their own citizens. Wait ten years and we'll be owned by China as they keep buying up our national debt at an alarming rate.

We had Sadaam in a box and he wasn't going anywhere. We are wasting our time in Iraq spending bilions while Kim Jong Il is looking to sell nuclear materials to terrorists on his back doorstep just to keep his sagging economy afloat. Iran is being overrun by militant hardliners intent on getting the bomb, and we can't even clean up after a Hurricane. But hey - I don't live on the gulf coast and I'm not in Iraq so pass me the remote so I can kick my feet up, drink a beer, and worry about what I'm going to buy next.