[rightnow]

Originally Posted by SomeRandomer123

Hydrogen is the most abudant element in the universe and we can now harness its energy and harness it well! Take the Honda FCX Clarity. An ordinary Family Saloon car. Or Sedan if your American at home. It has 130hp which is right on the money for a family saloon (or Sedan if your American at home) and it is pretty much a normal Honda! You put Hydrogen in to if like you do Petrol (or gasoline if your American at home) or Diesel. The car then turns it into juicy electric energy and you drive away! Hydrogen is the future because its just like the car of today. The range is good, perhaps slightly less than fossil fueled cars but this is the very first step and so will improve like our gas powered engines have now. The only emissions are Hydrogen and Oxygen, H2O - Water. There is only 1 moving part so it will be easy to service and cost less to make than ordinary cars do.
You got any better ideas?

Until hydrogen can produced using low energy/green energy in a large mass this is a useless idea, although i would like it if it worked. I wont have any thoughts on battery electric cars, cause ive never tried one. But there are ALOT of hybrid cars out there that works great. No need to ignore those. There are even an X6 Hybrid that's awsome!

[BobRBob]

Originally Posted by SomeRandomer123

Hydrogen is the most abudant element in the universe and we can now harness its energy and harness it well! Take the Honda FCX Clarity. An ordinary Family Saloon car. Or Sedan if your American at home. It has 130hp which is right on the money for a family saloon (or Sedan if your American at home) and it is pretty much a normal Honda! You put Hydrogen in to if like you do Petrol (or gasoline if your American at home) or Diesel. The car then turns it into juicy electric energy and you drive away! Hydrogen is the future because its just like the car of today. The range is good, perhaps slightly less than fossil fueled cars but this is the very first step and so will improve like our gas powered engines have now. The only emissions are Hydrogen and Oxygen, H2O - Water. There is only 1 moving part so it will be easy to service and cost less to make than ordinary cars do.
You got any better ideas?

Somerandomer123, Hydrogen is indeed plentiful, burns clean and has high energy content. Unfortunately, it is so chemically reactive that virtually all hydrogen in nature is tightly bound in stable compounds like water or in hydrocarbons like gasoline. Elemental hydrogen is produced by steam reforming of methane or by electrolysis of water (H2O), both highly energy intensive processes. Where do you propose this energy should come from? This is not an small issue. It is the basic problem with the use of Hydrogen as a fuel. Hydrogen is not an alternative energy source. It is simply a storage medium. There is no free lunch. Also, the infrastructure requirements to support a hydrogen economy do not exist today and would have to be built to make this idea work. It is not impossible but neither is it easily done.

[grimlock]

We could cover deserts with solar panels and that could supply all the energy we could ever use -but it would not be economical. It's easy to 'predict' the path of energy sources, just follow the relative price of producing it. Once it becomes viable, the market will automatically adopt it; if its not viable economically, massive gov subsidies could be spent and it would not help, if in the end the technology economics does not become cost viable in itself.

Electric cars are limited by battery mass. If the batteries could be 1/10th of what it is now, would any of the other problems of range, reliability, servicing, 'sustainability' etc. exists? No.

As the cost of petroleum increases relative to prospective replacements, the automakers will switch of their own (or consensus/gov.-driven) accord, to electrics (=coal/nuclear/solar etc) or nat.gas, of which there is supposedly plenty in the U.S., but at current prices no one is going to get off their a** and make it happen. Perhaps a few more presidential cycles of sustained higher-than-present gas(petrol) prices and it would be a not unthinkable election platform.

[SomeRandomer123]

The X6 hybrid is mated to the enourmous and very thirsty 50i though, so whats the point? Scraping the hydrogen off other elements is no more expensive at the end of the day (when you put it in your car) than Diesel or Petrol (or gasoline if your American at home). This is certainly an interesting subject. In 50 years we should come back to this thread and one of us can say "Ha! I told you so!!"

[rightnow]

The new Volvo V60(50?) is interesting. Plug in hybrid with a diesel engine. 200 hp diesel engine. 70 hp electric engine. Fully charge battery in 3 hours. You can drive 50 km on only electric (a bit bad I guess, but 90% of my daily travels are within 50 km). Blended drive consumption 0.2 liter / 10 km.

[Needsdecaf]

Originally Posted by Breach

They are not outdated. Just doomed.

Call me in 30 years and ask me that again. I think not.

[BMWMB]

BMW is working on a 550d with about 360ps and 700Nm of torque. The car will be delivered only with the M-package. This engine will find his way also to the 6 and 7 series. That's what my salesman told me today.

[EdM5]

Originally Posted by BMWMB

BMW is working on a 550d with about 360ps and 700Nm of torque. The car will be delivered only with the M-package. This engine will find his way also to the 6 and 7 series. That's what my salesman told me today.

That's fantastic news, you made my day.
Just in time to swap my F10 for the ultimate family ride F11 550d