About a month ago, one family in Redondo Beach leased a Honda FCX automobile.

http://www.h2cars.biz/artman/publish/article_754.shtml

The vehicle holds 8.4 pounds of fuel. For those of you unfamiliar with equivalents of liquid weights, a gallon of water weighs approximately 8 pounds. Ironically, it will accelerate from 0-60 in just over 13 seconds and has a top speed of 93 mph.

http://www.automobilemag.com/reviews/wagons/0508_honda_fcx/
(image available)


No pricing or availability information has been readily located.

Heh, great idea. I like it, but what are the drawbacks (because there simply must be some)?

Right now, the drawback is where to buy the fuel for the vehicle. That family probably doesn't drive far away from their local. :)

How about the small fact that you spend more energy getting the hydrogen for the car than you do by burning it - electrolysis takes stacks of energy in order to work - and where's that energy coming from? I'll give you a guess - F.F.B.P. Fossil Fuel Burning Power-station. The problem isn't solved at all!

Yes, it takes energy to "make" or refine energy. There is no disputing that. And you present a valid point. If the amount of pollution and energy to create and distribute gasoline to go 100 miles in a car (on average) is more damaging, wasteful and expensive than hydrogen-fuel cell cars, what's the point?

Here is an article on the overall efficiency of the process:
http://www-cms.llnl.gov/s-t/carbon_con.html

Harpers Magazine online (www.harpers.org) states:
Maximum portion of the chemical energy in gasoline that is used by an internal combustion engine: 1/4

There are also other ways to refine the fuel needed in the eletrochemical process. It's also performed by solar and wind energy. And instead of using carbon-based crude oil, it utilizes water molecules to garner the hydrogen (which later is recombined with oxygen to create the exhaust of nothing other than water!)

Solar and wind farms are very limited forms of energy production. Yet new projects are under construction. With the advent of the fuel cells in many other industrial applications, it's spurring the momentum of buildup in the "refining-side".

In regards to a query in the "Gas Prices" thread concerning the new $3.35 a gallon as an all time high where I live, have dug up this online article concerning the hydrogen fuel cell car - Honda FCX.

SOURCE: http://www.motortrend.com/features/auto_ne...afcx/index.html

Which means it's in the theoretical stage. Not theoretical as to it's technology but as to it's economic feasibility. Another article touts a more powerful engine:

SOURCE: http://www.automobilemag.com/features/news/0612_honda_fcx/

As to Roff's claim that it comes mostly from fossil fuel burning facilities, that is rather misleading. A USA Today online article cites:

SOURCE: http://www.usatoday.com/money/autos/review...cx_N.htm?csp=34

The same article also states that Honda has the 2008 model planned for consumer production. Nothing I had ran across though really indicates the price of the vehicle nor the price of fueling them.

Impressive.