I don't think Hydrogen cars will take off. I worked on an industrial site where Hydrogen was decanted from large trucks into smaller cylinders. On the same site we produced Acetylene. The Acetylene reaction is very volatile, and even after it is in the cylinders a hard knock is enough to create a run-away exothermic reaction.<p>I was once in a toilet, doing my business, when I heard a fire alarm go off. I stood up, pants still round my ankles, and looked out towards the acetylene filling plant. Nobody was running away, so I knew I had time to sit back down and wipe.<p>The last major accident on our site was an acetylene cylinder exploding, which immediately amputated a man's leg.<p>With all that in mind, all the workers on the site were STILL more afraid of doing Hydrogen filling than acetylene, due to its inherent volatility.
Why??? There is no environmentally friendly way to produce hydrogen. Either it is stripped from natural gas producing CO2, or from hydrolysis with currently about 30% efficiency. That means an equivalent electrical car can drive about 3 times as far on the same amount of electricity. Finally, refueling stations are extremely expensive to build because hydrogen is a rather volatile substance.
Maybe to save VW, the new management will switch to all-electric or hydrogen vehicles. It would be a huge change, but maybe necessary to save their brand. And it would be a huge win for customers, the industry as a whole, and the environment.
I would like to have an estimation of total hydrogen leaks we could have if everybody used this technology everywhere. Hydrogen is so light that it's going into space when it's released in atmosphere.<p>If the computation shows that we will send 1% of earth's hydrogen into space every 5 billion years, no problem.<p>If we will send 1% of earth's hydrogen every 1000 years or less, I will prefer not to use this technology.
Reading this book about the history of EV's atm: The great race: the global quest for the car of the future (<a href="http://amzn.to/1kxnT0c" rel="nofollow">http://amzn.to/1kxnT0c</a>).<p>China had great plans but has been quite slow to implement them since the provinces kept competing for funds. The role of Europe has been quite limited.
Interesting. I didn't even know these existed. So the big question. I live in the US. Should I save up for an electric car or save and wait for a hydrogen car?