"Cars and Things" (stern0)
11/21/2015 at 11:40 • Filed to: None
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"Cars and Things" (stern0)
11/21/2015 at 11:40 • Filed to: None | 0
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With the official North American debut of the hydrogen-powered 2016 Clarity at this week’s Los Angeles Auto Show, !!!error: Indecipherable SUB-paragraph formatting!!! has unveiled its plan to add another vehicle to what may become a crowded segment of the automotive market, hydrogen-fueled, electric vehicles. At the moment, Toyota and Hyundai are the primary competitors. Already on the market, Clarity will join the Toyota Mirai and Hyundai Tuscon next year. It is expected that other automakers, Ford, Mercedes-Benz, and General Motors, will also be offering hydrogen-fueled vehicles by 2020.
Indeed, market research and analysis has shown that hydrogen-fueled vehicles will likely be the wave of the future. Key to the adoption of hydrogen as a fuel source, though, will be the construction of an infrastructure that allows convenient fueling. At the moment, there are between 60 and 80 hydrogen stations in California, located primarily in the Los Angeles, San Francisco-Bay and Sacramento areas. It is expected that the next major market tackled, likely to be the Northeast, will be outfitted more quickly so that hydrogen-fuel technology will be adopted quickly.
Pricing will likely be a determinant in the mix. Right now, the four-passenger crossover Mirai and the five-passenger Tuscon, are priced in the low $60,000 area. When the Clarity makes its official debut in dealer showrooms it will probably be priced in this range, as well, according to various observers at the auto show.
The Honda Clarity, available as a five-seat crossover-style vehicle, features a nicely swept front end that merges into a raked windshield that flows one through a rounded roofline that terminates at the rear end. The lines are quite reminiscent of a hatchback vehicles. Ride and handling, reports say, are on a par with other
!!!error: Indecipherable SUB-paragraph formatting!!! vehicles. Since that is the reported case, then the Clarity will feature a nicely controlled ride. Handling should be standard for a front-wheel-drive vehicle which means that it will have lots of understeer. This is the type of handling that most motorists tend to expect. As to equipment, customers can equip Clarity with all of the options that can be marked off for any Honda vehicle, such as the Honda Sensing safety suite of features. It also features the usual range of infotainment/technology equipment. Apple Play and Android Auto.
Although it might seem as if a hydrogen-fueled car might use the compressed gas directly — it might be possible but it would take some extensive redesigning of some engine components — it doesn’t work that way. Instead, the dual hydrogen storage tanks will take a high-pressure charge from a, more or less, standard fuel pump handle. About the only difference might be in the need for a positive lock before the fueling process begins. Then, if you hear anything at all, it might be more a high-pressure hiss than the usual sounds of vehicle fueling.
Because the dual fuel storage tanks are built to handle high-pressure, fast fillups, it should take about three minutes to fuel up. Once the fuel begins to flow, the hydrogen is mixed with oxygen. The mix is then catalyzed so that three things are created, electricity, heat and water. The water vapor is expelled out the tailpipe while the heat assists the catalysis process (the process of turning hydrogen into electricity) while the electricity charges a lithium-ion battery rack. The fuel load is good for 300 miles. This is pretty much the same range you have with an automatic-equipped V-8 car.
The Clarity introduced at this week’s Los Angeles Auto Show is the second generation. The first appeared in 2009. So far, there have been relatively few hydrogen-fueled electric vehicles sold. Toyota recently reported the sale of its 200th Mirai while there are no published numbers available for Honda. Perhaps the key reason sales aren’t greater is the lack of infrastructure. It is expected, though, that the infrastructure — fueling/service stations — will grow rapidly. All automakers are working to help expand the number of fueling stations.
On its introduction last Tuesday, John Mendel, executive vice president of American Honda Motor Co., called the Clarity a “game changer.” He noted that cars such as the Clarity are “potential game changers because they offer an uncompromising, zero emissions customer experience with utility, range and refueling times on par with today’s gasoline-powered cars.” Honda has been working for more than two decades to advance hydrogen technology to the market.
gin-san - shitpost specialist
> Cars and Things
11/21/2015 at 12:03 |
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I like hydrogen, but questions always surround the safety of high-pressure tanks in accidents as well as procuring hydrogen. While it's still out there, I hope it's something people continue to develop because I think a combination of battery EVs like Teslas and hydrogen is what we'll need for the future. I'll leave it to the engineers to figure it all out.
BaconSandwich is tasty.
> gin-san - shitpost specialist
11/21/2015 at 13:31 |
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Not only that, it just doesn’t make sense from an economics or efficiency standpoint. Converting whatever form of energy you have into hydrogen, then converting that hydrogen back into electricity will never be as efficient as going straight to electricity.
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gin-san - shitpost specialist
> BaconSandwich is tasty.
11/21/2015 at 13:54 |
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Exactly, it’s the whole problem of where to get hydrogen. I always liked the idea of genetically engineered organisms which could take organic bio-waste (organic in the sense of carbon/hydrogen, not in the ridiculously priced grocery sense) and convert to hydrogen, since we’d be breaking down what would be waste products anyway, but doing so on an industrial scale is the issue. Electrolysis of water is what a lot of people bring up but that’s really energy intensive and pointless.
Like I said, I’m leaving it to engineers and scientists to do what they can do - battery technology keeps improving, and if quick-charge (like Tesla superchargers) comes down even further in time then hydrogen will really become a moot-point except for specialized purposes.
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Cars and Things
> gin-san - shitpost specialist
11/22/2015 at 04:30 |
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The funny thing about the stuff they store hydrogen in for cars is that you can whack it, grind it, even dunk it and nothing will happen. The heat of the chemical reaction that is used to release product electricity is also the key to freeing the hydrogen from its storage. It is pretty inert and won’t explode. It is easy to think that it might — especially if you know the history of atmospheric hydrogen and lighter-than-airships — blow up easily, but, the storage medium works against this as it is practically inert at all times (you need heat which is only supplied when you need the fuel in the first place). That said, it is the storage medium that keeps the lid on.
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Cars and Things
> BaconSandwich is tasty.
11/22/2015 at 04:32 |
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It’s not as much of a problem as you think as the process of hydrolysis frees hydrogen from water quite nicely.
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Cars and Things
> gin-san - shitpost specialist
11/22/2015 at 04:39 |
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Two promising technologies for generating hydrogen involve microbes and water splitting using graphene as part of the splitting engine. The thing is this there’s lots of hydrogen available for use as a fuel. Getting it out in the cleanest manner possible still needs more research but hydrogen is still the best fuel for the future as it is nearly inexhaustible. All of life needs hydrogen. It is estimated that 90 percent of every cell in your body is made up of the substance and likewise in nature.
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BaconSandwich is tasty.
> Cars and Things
11/23/2015 at 10:15 |
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Hydrogen might be an incredibly abundant substance, but it is almost always bound to something else. And breaking those bonds, using what technology we have now, takes a lot of energy. Energy that could very easily be spent charging batteries. No matter how you do it, the process of creating hydrogen, compressing and shipping hydrogen, then converting that hydrogen back into electricity will never be as efficient as just using the electricity straight up.
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Cars and Things
> BaconSandwich is tasty.
11/23/2015 at 14:18 |
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True, no doubt of it, but — it’s a big but, too — going straight from electric to battery requires charging and that requires, in most places, the use of coal- or gas-fired electricity generators. This isn’t the best way for the environment as it does place extra load on the system, generating greenhouse gases.
Hydrogen, on the other hand, while it may be not as efficient, is still a self-contained, self-generating system. Granted, you do have to crack water or use natural gas to initiate the hydrogen-collection process, however, on the whole, as the electric fleet broadens, it is more than likely true that the self-contained hydrogen model will be better for the environment.