I think we’ll need to include in the electric car specs a thunderous stereo system blasting a high fidelity V8 burble & roar. Maybe an offbalance rotating shaft somewhere to complete the effect…… nah!.. I agree that even won’t cut it!

Bugger that.

I’d rather billowing clouds of tyre smoke and a roaring bellowing internal combustion engine burning fantastic amounts of powerful fossil fuels and leaving two smoking strips of rubber down on my favourite piece of dry road as the tacho swings to the redline and I snatch second gear and do it all over again……

Oh, and the anti-spam word.. Bugatti, I rest my case.

mate have you been to the Middle East yourself? because all I hear you say is utter jibberish.

Dubai isn’t surviving on oil or date exports… the number of projects going on there, you’d have to be an ignorant twat to believe that only oil is the reason they are booming. While its an integral part of their economy, its not totally dependent on it.. Tourism, Arab Emirates (pretty sure I’ve read a number of times on their good high caliber ratings) then the property development. Hell even Brangelina got themselves a piece of land (on those Islands which resemble countries).

Do a bit of research mate, I suggest you get yourself updated…

*rant end/

The key is to get the energy from somewhere clean to make the hydrogen. Those options exist but are still in their infancy. Until this happens, fuel cells are only moving the problem somewhere else.

Which is best? It depends on your criteria for whats important: Cost, greenhouse impact, self sufficiency.

And I agree with Joober that this will be a changing landscape with all technologies in a constant state of improvement.

I just think that Hydrogen is pushing sh*t up hill. Its always going to be a bugger to store/transport – all the inovations/enhancements in the world are not going to alter the basic thermodynamic limitations of the stuff.

You are always going to have to get it either from hyrdrocarbon reforming (which generates CO2) or from water (which requires you to put more energy in than you get out)

Battery/electric drive is way ahead ogf H2 on every criteria, and unlike H2 / fuel cells, battery/capacitor technology has strong & EXISTING commercial drivers pushing its R&D along at turbo pace!( think mobile phones, PCs, and military in the case of ultracapacitors).

BTW – Rolfmatic – H2 storage tanks are typically in the 100kg – 200kg range. Add that to the fuel cell weight and I think you would find there would be nothing in the weight difference comapred to batteries.

Where are you going to fill up, the infrastructure just isn’t there… As said in the article, you must fill up at a couple of places, severely limiting the use of hydrogen vehicles for the mass market at the point in time.

Secondly, the car probably costs a fortune to make just one unit. That’s why Honda are leasing, they aren’t going to recover the cost, but at least they still own the vehicles and can continue to perform tests on them. Is the FCX going to be the next GM EV1?