Hybrid Electric Cars & Hydrogen Fuel Vehicles

Honda FCX - Hydrogen Fuel Cell Car

Did you wish that car was a Zero-Emission Vehicle (ZEV) like the extraordinary Honda FCX?
 
The only emission that the Honda FCX produces is water vapor. That's because a revolutionary technology allows the FCX to power its motor with electricity generated from a hydrogen-oxygen chemical reaction. With a maximum output of 80 horsepower and 201 Lb.-ft. of torque, the FCX has responsive acceleration that is ideal for city driving. Plus, the FCX is practical for a wide range of typical daily driving trips in today's world.
 

The Honda FCX is the world's most advanced FCV in regular daily operation and the first hydrogen-powered FCV to be certified by CARB and the U.S. EPA, as a 2003 model in July 2002. Honda started fuel cell research in the 1980's and has been road testing vehicles in the United States and Japan since 1999.

Chevrolet to Launch World's Largest Fuel Cell Vehicle Fleet

More Than 100 to Debut in 2007 in First Meaningful Market Test of Fuel Cell Vehicles

SAN DIEGO — General Motors committed to building the world’s largest fuel cell vehicle fleet today by announcing its next-generation fuel cell vehicle – the Chevrolet Equinox Fuel Cell.

GM will build more than 100 Chevrolet Equinox Fuel Cell vehicles and will begin placing them with customers in the fall of 2007, as part of a comprehensive deployment plan dubbed “Project Driveway." Designed to gain comprehensive learnings on all aspects of the customer experience, Project Driveway constitutes the first meaningful market test of fuel cell vehicles anywhere. A variety of drivers – in differing driving environments – will operate these vehicles and refuel with hydrogen in three geographic areas: California, the New York metropolitan area and Washington D.C.

“General Motors is demonstrating its commitment to hydrogen fuel cells as the answer for taking the automobile out of the environmental debate and reducing our dependence on petroleum," said Larry Burns, GM vice president, research & development and strategic planning. “The Equinox Fuel Cell is powered by GM’s most advanced fuel cell propulsion system to date, and demonstrates an important milestone on our pathway to automotive-competitive fuel cell propulsion technology development."

Enabled by GM’s fourth-generation fuel cell propulsion system, the Equinox Fuel Cell is a fully-functional crossover vehicle, engineered for 50,000 miles of life. Importantly, the Equinox Fuel Cell is able to start and operate in sub-freezing temperatures during its 50,000-mile life. It is expected to meet all applicable 2007 U.S. Federal Motor Vehicle Safety Standards, and is equipped with a long list of standard safety features including driver and passenger frontal air bags and roof rail side-impact air bags; anti-lock braking system (ABS); StabiliTrak stability enhancement technology and OnStar, while providing all of the environmental benefits of hydrogen fuel cell technology.

"The Equinox Fuel Cell is a real-world vehicle with real-world performance," said Ed Peper, Chevrolet general manager. “The fuel cell technology is seamlessly integrated into a uniquely styled crossover vehicle that is distinctively Chevrolet. The Equinox Fuel Cell joins Chevrolet’s family of advanced gas-saving and alternative fuel vehicles."

The Project Driveway market test will provide comprehensive insight into all aspects of the customer experience, including reaction to the exciting, smooth and quiet performance of a fuel cell vehicle, and refueling with clean hydrogen gas. “These learnings will directly influence future fuel cell vehicle generations and ultimate market acceptance," Peper said. "With Chevrolet being GM’s global volume brand, it makes sense that Chevy will lead GM’s fuel cell vehicle commercialization charge."

Mazda Plans Gas-Hydrogen Hybrid

Forget about DaimlerChrysler’s so-called Smart car – the Mazda 5 is about the smartest car you can buy today. It’s inexpensive, fuel efficient, roomy, and fun-to-drive. And with the introduction of the Mazda 5 Hydrogen Hybrid Concept at the 2006 North American International Auto Show in Detroit, it gets the equivalent of a graduate degree from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology.

Why is this car so smart? It can run on either gasoline or hydrogen, thanks to its dual-fuel rotary engine. And to further maximize performance and efficiency while reducing pollution, the Mazda 5 Hydrogen Hybrid Concept has a hybrid-electric drive system to boost power, cut fuel consumption, and reduce emissions. Best of all, the Mazda 5 Hydrogen Hybrid Concept manages to squeeze all this technology into the existing package with no loss of interior room or comfort. There’s still space for six passengers in comfortable seats, or you can reconfigure the 5 for maximum cargo-hauling capacity.

Smarter still, and the icing on a very useful cake, is the fact that this advanced system is a dual-fuel arrangement. That means Mazda understands that a vehicle like the 5 Hydrogen Hybrid, if it were to be produced, would need to bridge the gap between a scarcity of hydrogen filling stations and an unknown point in the future when every Chevron and Texaco is serving it up next to the unleaded pumps.

Mazda’s hydrogen fuel technology development is still in progress, but we like the direction the company is headed. If we handed out grades for this kind of thing, the Mazda 5 Hydrogen Hybrid would get an A+.

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