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This article was in Illinois Congressman John Shimkus' weekly E-letter.




http://www.house.gov/shimkus/HySeries.JPG

Congressman Shimkus’ Electronic Newsletter
Friday, September 28, 2007

Plug In Hybrid Edge Unveiled

This past week, I was able to test drive the Ford Edge with HySeries Drive (http://media.ford.com/newsroom/release_display.cfm?release=25286) and meet the program director, Mujeeb Ijaz.

The Ford Edge with HySeries Drive is the world’s first drivable fuel cell hybrid electric vehicle with plug-in capability. This vehicle is designed to use different fuels and propulsion technologies.

It is a fuel cell hybrid electric plug-in that combines an onboard hydrogen fuel cell generator with lithium-ion batteries to deliver more than 41 mpg with zero emissions. When operating, only water vapor is emitted through the exhaust system. The vehicle can be recharged overnight.

I enjoyed driving the car and will continue to support such innovations that will reduce our dependence on foreign oil.

They had one (at least a "shell" of one) at the auto shows this past year. I saw it at the DC show. From a non-technical point of view, it looked very nice. From a slightly-technical POV, I doubt it will make it to production, but it's great for the press.

What do you think the ecological impact would be of large city with vehicles producing so much water out of the tail pipes. Wont' it basically cause more clouds and possible more rain in those cities? What happens in la where there is already a lot of polution in the air and the water molecules combine with the pollution and rain it down?

I'm thinking it might be a bad idea.

What do you think the ecological impact would be of large city with vehicles producing so much water out of the tail pipes. Wont' it basically cause more clouds and possible more rain in those cities? What happens in la where there is already a lot of polution in the air and the water molecules combine with the pollution and rain it down?

I'm thinking it might be a bad idea.

It'd be something to think about, but there already is a lot of water vapor coming out of conventional tailpipes. My intuition is that foggy places would get a little bit more fog and in cold weather there would be more trouble with "black ice" from exhaust condensation, but the other polution concerns would be somewhat reduced along with the other emissions.

This presupposes that in any of this hydrogen stuff there is any intention of producing a real car that might have real effects (might be an unintended consequence but this is so many suppositions its hard to handle). I think the real role of hydrogen cars is to pretend they are doing something to keep from actually having to do something. "Yep we're doing stuff, we're working on hydrogen". Hydrogen is a moving target that from wherever you want to look at it whether it is 1990 or 2007 we're always 10-20 years away. It definitely stopped the real electric car (or had a role anyway).

--des

What do you think the ecological impact would be of large city with vehicles producing so much water out of the tail pipes. Wont' it basically cause more clouds and possible more rain in those cities? What happens in la where there is already a lot of polution in the air and the water molecules combine with the pollution and rain it down?

I'm thinking it might be a bad idea.