Hydrogen Cars, Why Not Just Make Electric

[ClayMeow]

check out the X-prize foundation. their competition for cars is admirable and very real. (no its not about putting car in orbit) its about not only creating a super efficient car, but one based on actual mass-production capable, low emission to produce, low emission to drive. it pits all attributes into an index. lowest impact wins the money and goes into production.

I don't know this year's numbers, but as of last year's hybrids, they still weren't worth the money, even with our soaring gas prices (yep, that's right...if any of you have a hybrid and didn't get it because you're an environment nut, you're an idiot...then again, if you're an environment nut, you're probably an idiot as well ). The car manufacturers have to find a balance between price and efficiency before the cars can become mainstream.

[94Camaro]

2H2 + O2 = 2H2O

 

the only product is water

Ironically, water vapor is a worse greenhouse gas than carbon dioxide is...so we'll have all these cars spewing water vapor into the atmosphere instead of CO2, an actually making "global warming" worse. LOLZ

[iKillSteal]

Ironically, water vapor is a worse greenhouse gas than carbon dioxide is...so we'll have all these cars spewing water vapor into the atmosphere instead of CO2, an actually making "global warming" worse. LOLZ

All that extra moisture could also spell disaster for people with fungus allergies. Of course it'll take a while for that to become reality.

[airman]

All that extra moisture could also spell disaster for people with fungus allergies. Of course it'll take a while for that to become reality.

 

 

i believe the water that is let out is in a gaseous form, which means it would only rise to the clouds and condensate up there, and thus create rain. but you're right. if it is in liquid form, that could possibly cause that issue. however - consider how much carbon monoxide our cars are producing already. i'd rather replace an extremely poisonous gas with a harmless one

[Kamikaze_Badger]

All good ideas but i think the real reason is the oil compaines and all the money car manufactures make off of car repairs.

 

Short life span, wrong. The batteries in current hybrids have over a 200,000 mile warrenty or the life of the car. And weight i dont think is an issue. How much more can batteries and electric motors be than a gas engine.

My brother's Prius weighs 3800 pounds. THAT'S how much heavier.

[hardnrg]

The most amazing form of energy for vehicles that I have seen is one that produces A MINIATURE SUN inside the car, suspended by a magnetic field, surrounded by solar cells... the thing produces like six times as much energy as a nuclear power plant at full capacity, and I think the only thing holding it back from production is the difficulty of suspension via magnetism...

 

Was pretty mind-boggling seeing the design and vehicle produced... I want a miniature sun in my car!

[Comp Dude2]

Fusion in a car? I thought those things were massive (like really massive), dough-nut shaped and could only run for very short periods of time?

[xPETEZx]

Just a question,

 

If a Hydrogen car puts out Water vapor, what happens say when you have a traffic jam of Hydrogen Cars on a very cold winters day?

 

Surely all the Vapor will turn to water prematurely, and then freeze on the roads?

[Puck]

Ironically, water vapor is a worse greenhouse gas than carbon dioxide is...so we'll have all these cars spewing water vapor into the atmosphere instead of CO2, an actually making "global warming" worse. LOLZ

I was about to point that out myself! LMAO!

 

(OT: BTW Al Gore makes me SICK...)

 

The most amazing form of energy for vehicles that I have seen is one that produces A MINIATURE SUN inside the car, suspended by a magnetic field, surrounded by solar cells... the thing produces like six times as much energy as a nuclear power plant at full capacity, and I think the only thing holding it back from production is the difficulty of suspension via magnetism...

 

Was pretty mind-boggling seeing the design and vehicle produced... I want a miniature sun in my car!

 

Magnatism will open countless doors in the future. A strong magnetic field is the only thing physically possible of containing and controlling plasma for means as an energy source. It will also make long distance space travel much more feasible.

[PeterStoba]

Hydrogen can be obtained from water, yeah? So you're left with pure oxygen which can then be sold... This is better than conventional methods of obtaining pure oxygen. More money for the company thats all they want

[Verran]

Ironically, water vapor is a worse greenhouse gas than carbon dioxide is...so we'll have all these cars spewing water vapor into the atmosphere instead of CO2, an actually making "global warming" worse. LOLZ

Water vapor is the worst greenhouse gas, but even if everyone in the world switched to these cars the output still wouldn't even be comparable to the amount of naturally evaporated water vapor. These things just need to be put into perspective. The water vapor we would create is a mere drop in the bucket in comparison to what's already happening.

 

Also, a lot of people like to point out that electric cars (plug-ins) still use fossil fuels. This is absolutely correct, but again it is not put in a realistic perspective. Equating power from a wall outlet to power made by an internal combustion engine means that you think these two sources are equally efficient. ICE motors are incredibly inefficient in comparison to power plants that supply whole cities or even states, if for no other reason than scale. Wall power is considerably cheaper for the consumer, too.

 

There's still the issue of batteries, which is a MAJOR one. I'm not saying electric is the perfect solution, but it's a step in the right direction. ICE cars had to grow to what they are today, just like any other product. Electric cars should be given that same opportunity.

 

As far as hydrogen, that too looks promising, but it's much further out than electric. Not only do we need to build an entire fueling infrastructure but we also need to find much more efficient ways of producing hydrogen. People look at the hydrogen car and how well (and cleanly) it produces energy and think it's great, but they don't look at where the hydrogen came from. A lot of energy goes into making hydrogen, and when you look at the whole picture, it's currently not that efficient.

[Waco]

Fusion in a car? I thought those things were massive (like really massive), dough-nut shaped and could only run for very short periods of time?

AFAIK we haven't broken even on energy input versus output yet either (IE: we throw more power at it to keep it going than it can produce).