Hydrogen fuel cell car going on sale in Britain

[flecc]

Toyota's long awaited Mirai model, hydrogen fuel cell powered, is finally going on sale. Two things for you here:

First, today's BBC Radio 4 "You and Yours" program has a feature on it and the fuelling availability and you can listen again from the exact 20 minute mark on this i-player link

Second, Toyota have a website page which shows much detail of the layout and construction, just scroll right down through the webpage to see it all on this link

In a dramatic move Toyota have, like Tesla with their e-car, made all the patents available to all car makers to help create demand for a larger fuelling infrastructure.
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[JuicyBike]

Nice one Tony.

 

[flecc]

Thanks Bob. There have been two hydrogen fuel cell e-bike designs, a prototype from Aprilia more than a decade ago and a privately designed recumbent trike from an Austrian individual. The latter was fast and had an over 50 mile range.

So perhaps this news might stimulate someone in the e-bike world to return to this design option.
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[Croxden]

Last year I met a man local to me who works on hydrogen fuel cells and has some taxis converted and running well.


He was fascinated with my ebike he wondered if I would be interested on having such a thing on the bike. I wanted him to join the forum where brighter people than me might have been more helpful. I don't know if he looked on and I've not seen him since or evidence of him being on here, but I would remember his dog, just like a wolf it was.


My thoughts were, if I could make my own hydrogen it would be great but it seems there might be some objections from certain authorities so I went off the idea.

 

[D8ve]

The usable fuel cell designs use methanol as a fuel not straight hydrogen.
Transporting and storing H2 is difficult and dangerous.
But not illegal as far as I'm aware.

 

[flecc]

The usable fuel cell designs use methanol as a fuel not straight hydrogen.

It seems with this car that Toyota disagree, and so do Mercedes on the group of eight Hydrogen Fuel Cell Powered London Buses which have been running successfully for over four years now:

They also previously ran during a three year trial from 2004 to 2007.
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[trex]

didn't they jump the gun a little bit? they should have concentrated their marketing effort to lower the cost of plugin hybrids and waited for their wider adoption. Plugin hybrids do not require any additional infrastructure while still gain in MPG and lessen pollution.

 

[Croxden]

The longest march starts with the first step.

 

[flecc]

didn't they jump the gun a little bit? they should have concentrated their marketing effort to lower the cost of plugin hybrids and waited for their wider adoption. Plugin hybrids do not require any additional infrastructure while still gain in MPG and lessen pollution.

Given the length of development through experience that's also necessary, I think Toyota are to be praised for starting the process as soon as possible and in parallel with hybrid.

Clearly we will be unable to very widely adopt hydrogen as a fuel for a very long time, simply because the only realistic way of producing it in vast quantities requires a huge increase in nuclear generation, but being prepared for if and when it becomes more viable is sensible.

There are other precedents for early introductions. During WW2 in Belgium, ammonia was developed and used as a fuel for their buses. There are also buses that pick up electrical charge from induction loops at bus stops, and in Switzerland a flywheel bus that spins up it's large flywheel at each stop, the flywheel's energy then carrying it to the next stop. One US university has developed a car V8 steam engine. Rolls Royce have flown jet engines fuelled by powdered coal, though on those days it probably wasn't wise to hang out washing to dry!

Having a wide range of transit power options to cope with a changing world makes sense to avoid getting caught out over time.
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