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Auto makers began looking for a better answer and locked in on fuel cells. (http://washingtontimes.com/news/2008/oct/17/gms-volt-may-help-pull-plug-on-fuel-cell/)

http://www.cleanmpg.com/photos/data/2/hydrogen.jpgDavid E. Zoia - The Washington Times (http://washingtontimes.com/news/) – October 17, 2008

Is this a bad thing? -- Ed.

Has General Motors killed the hydrogen car?

Maybe, but not on purpose.

When GM rolled out its Volt plug-in electric vehicle concept nearly two years ago and pledged to have the car on dealer lots by the end of 2010, it set off a worldwide race to develop a new-generation of battery technology that now is threatening to put the future of hydrogen fuel-cell vehicles to rest.

GM remains among the world's auto makers most active in FCV development. Its Project Driveway program is placing 100 or so hydrogen-fed Chevrolet Equinox FCVs into the hands of average people in the U.S., China and Western Europe for some real-world testing over the next couple of years. Those Equinox FCVs are a marvel of engineering, packaging hydrogen fuel tanks, a fuel cell and sophisticated electronics into a mostly standard production vehicle that drives much like anything else on the road.

Honda also is pursuing FCVs with its Clarity, which is leased in limited numbers to California consumers. Toyota is set to lease its experimental FCHV-adv cross/utility vehicle to...http://washingtontimes.com/news/2008/oct/17/gms-volt-may-help-pull-plug-on-fuel-cell/

GM should have killed the Fool Cell vehicles years ago. Let's see what's better:

-- Volt: Needs no fuel for 30-40 miles, then gets 50+ MPG on regular gasoline. $35k-$45k.
-- Fool Cell: No fuel infrastructure; FCV stack only lasts 30k miles; $1 million / each.

yeah, plug-ins are the future. It'll be a battery electric car for the first 30 or 40 miles, and then after that it needs some kind of generator to recharge the batteries. Right now it's just a regular ice engine, but it could also be a diesel engine, or any other engine that will generate enough energy to recharge those batteries.

Or a Plug-in Fuel Cell Hybrid

Or a Plug-in Fuel Cell Hybrid

I like the way you're thinking. It shouldn't be an either or proposition. I expect fuel cell research to continue until/unless batteries get much better energy storage densities. We're likely to have to wait on large scale fuel cell vehicle development and production--budgets are too tight right now.

Yep the more I am learning the more obvious Plug-ins are the way to go.

How about this?
A plug in with an Air power engine for recharge on the go.

Hmmm… could you call a bike pump in the trunk an “emergency power source”?:rolleyes:

these people are not talking about using it for a plugin, that part is just my wishfull thinking.

A coworker sent me the link to these air power engine videos.
Part 1 of 2
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=D-A3XHFT5qc
Part 2 of 2
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Dq8aZVLpf-c&feature=related

then today I found this.
http://www.popularmechanics.com/automotive/new_cars/4251491.html

Air-Powered Car Coming to U.S. in 2009 to 2010 at Sub-$18,000, Could Hit 1000-Mile Range
http://media.popularmechanics.com/images/aircar0208.jpg
The CityCAT, already being developed in India (bottom left), will be available for U.S. production in three different four-door styles. But it's the radical dual-energy engine, with a possible 1000-mile range at 96 mph, that could move the Air Car beyond Auto X Prize dreams and into American garages.

But a fuel cell plugin hybrid is pretty simple, the electric car uses electricity from a battery, but a fuel cell car uses electricity from a fuel cell stack combining hydrogen and oxygen to form electricity and water. Totally complementary propulsion system

I forgot to mention that when I saw one of the Nissan Fuel Cell vehicles refuel from no bars on the display to completely full it took about half as long as it used to take my Prius to get to the first click on a fill from a normal gas station, and that FCV was filling off a mobile refueling station.

I think the air cars are blasting completely non-realistic numbers. There can't possibly enough energy stored by just compressed air to drive a 1000 lb vehicle anywhere close to that range. Maybe less than a hundred miles, but not much more.

If it was that simple to compress a gas then we wouldn't have the issues about range we do with hydrogen and fuel cells.

Hi Sean:

___I am glad to see a journalist question the well to wheel numbers as that is where the FCV completely falls apart to day…

___Good Luck

___Wayne