I wanted to buy a G-Wiz (Reva in Australia) electric car, but go stalled by Government red tape.

Now I want to get a Honda Clarity .. but how long do we have to wait for hydrogen filling stations? Who will take the initaive? The stations must come before the cars, but without Government backing, noone will make the investment to provide hydrogen fueling without a return on investment.

I agree with the previous poster: abandon all Hybrid development in favour of building a hydrogen infrastructure.

But it must go further, industry must prove to consumers that electric, hydrogen fuelled cars are reliable and ‘normal’ enough for everyday use. How is this done? via motorsport of course!

Either in a different catgeory, or have them compete side-by-side with a comparible class petrol powered vehicle.

We all saw the Tesla on Top Gear, so we know they are fast enough. We just need this proven to the mass market.

Halon

Everyone should start getting used to this design trend driven by fuel consumption rather than non-functional aesthetics.

just like when we cut our water consumption and start putting in tanks,
they are now going to hit us with a rainwater tax to make up for the water boards lost revenue.

we are currently being or will be slammed on our electricity too

lets just hope they dont outlaw smoking. plenty of tax$$ will need to find somewhere else to come from too

The only issue i see with Hydrogen is that if it replaces oil, who will control the supply of hydrogen? Shell? Mobil? British Petroleum? Chevron? and it’s environmental benefits are only there if the hydrogen is produced in environmentally sensitive ways.

Going with the perfect world scenario where the infrastructure is there, the clean hydrogen is there, we are back at the mercy of big oil because they are the ones with the ability to provide the required infrastructure. Once again leaving us vulnerable to their ability to control and manipulate prices.

I believe hydrogen would make a good replacement for ICE’s in E-REV’s but in the long term, Kevin Rudd should move towards electric vehicle infrastrucute….converting parking meters into charging stations, providing incentives and tax breaks on electric vehicles and introducing charging bays in public car parks.

It would be alot cheaper than converting petrol stations to Hydrogen, and eletric cars powered by coal are still more enviromentaly sounds than conventional cars.

The return of cheap fuel will delay alternative technologies indefinately as Australians and Americans keep the gas guzzlers they’ve grown to love. But i’m not complaining, as a P-Plater it stretches the little money i have just that much further.

Then this car would make a heap of sense, except that the excise on hydrogen fuel would make it the same cost to run as petrol.

Let’s face it, when Australia cuts its fuel use in half due to alternatives, who believes the Govt of the day will be happy with half the fuel tax ???

They’ll keep increasing tax/levy on whatever alternative is used to keep the revenue constant and increasing.

The prius tapped into a movement in the US, a visual representation of the protest many americans had about how the country was heading. Arguably it was dragged to a success it never deserved, but it visually showed that you were almost rebelling against the image they had of an oil stealing, war mungering, environment killing Bush administration.

Now that Obama has been sworn in, it will be interesting to see what happens to hybrid sales. Obama has already shown himself to be very sciency (good use of ingrish i know) and environmentally minded, so the “i’m buying a hybrid to show i care” factor will diminish and replaced with ‘the government cares about the environment, they’ll do something to fix it’. People will feel less compelled to address the issue themselves at their own expense. Not until oil prices go up and beyond $US147 a barrel will hybrid sales get back up to anywhere near the sales levels they were before *unless* hybrids evolve to the point they are good cars in their own right, and the hybrid part is just an added extra. In that environment, I think hybrids that don’t shout out their ‘hybridness’ will be more successful, particularly with the stigma that traditional prius owners are starting to generate.

Shame though, the clarity is the way of the future, hydrogen fuel cell, a car that actually handles like a car. The electric hybrid camp like to say that the cost of producing hydrogen is too much, too polluting, like making lithium-ion batteries by the kilotonne is as environmentally friendly as a butterfly landing on a dandelion to the sounds of birds singing. Already scientists have bred bacteria that convert carbon monoxide into hydrogen gas, water electrolysis powered by renewable energy is also a good alternative, and you can use pretty crappy water to do it. Yes plug in hybrids are techincally the most energy efficient way, but unless they get charge times down to minutes, and ranges out to several hundred kilometres, they will never be as practical as current technology. Hydrogen fuel cells give us that current day practicality, but with the bonus of zero emissions.