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FC Cars are nothing like you describe. Range is 300+ miles. Fueling is under 5 minutes from empty and generally un-eventful. The H2 supply chain breaks down far more often than the cars or the fueling stations (and the supply chain is getting better).

H2 tanks are extensively tested including such items as shooting them with 50 cal bullets. It takes two bullets to the same location to pierce the tank, and then it is a leak and the H2 gas that goes straight up. If it ignites, all the flame goes straight up as well. It is very hard to create an explosive mixture, and even then the explosive over-pressure is not really an explosion (a refinery in Wilmington, CA had a very large H2 tank explode a number of years ago. I felt the pressure wave 15 miles away. Even though many people were on site, no one was even injured.) I always wondered if H2 was a greenhouse gas. The answer is no as it actually escapes into space and literally leaves the planet (Helium does this as well). There are design differences, but generally H2 is far safer than gasoline car. Even a BEV car has real safety issues. Did you know the fire department needs to "saw" two spots on a Tesla Model 3 to break the high voltage "loop".

Reliability is also very good with 100K miles warranty and almost no required maintenance. Even the breaks last forever. I drive my FC car every day and it is an excellent car that gets me where I want to go in safety and comfort. My closest H2 station is about 4 miles away with 2 others within 15 miles. I see other FC cars on the road most days. 5100+ in California. http://www.cafcp.org./

The cost is equivalent to $5.60 per gallon of gas, and Toyota includes 3 years of free fuel...

So, where do you recharge your H2 vehicle on long trips?

At a hydrogen fueling station:
http://www.afdc.energy.gov/fue...
http://cafcp.org/stationmap
Right now, you're out of luck if you're not on the east or west coast. But, if you had an electric car ten years ago you're be equally out of luck.

The nice thing with my Tesla is I can charge virtually anywhere there's electricity. Granted, the superchargers take some time, but it's not a huge amount of time. Now, take the amount of time saved by charging every night. It takes only a few seconds to plug in and unplug vs the amount of time spent driving to one of a limited number of hydrogen refueling stations, waiting in line (if they're popular) and filling up. On top of that, the electricity is far cheaper than the hydrogen. Currently virtually all hydrogen is heavily subsidized since the actual price would not be cheap. Currently EVs are over twice as efficient compared to a hydrogen fuel cell car when once considers well to wheel. HFC vehicles aren't much better than hybrid vehicles when it comes to efficiency but they're still a lot more expensive to build. They have a very long way to go. Durability of the fuel cell stacks is currently about half that of a gasoline engine. A fuel cell stack as of the end of 2015 will need to be replaced at 75K miles. I did the math and the batteries in my Tesla will be good for at least double this. See this.

The 2016 Toyota Mirai, a subcompact, is only rated at 66MPG. A Prius is 58 city, 53 highway and costs less than half the price of the Mirai. BEVs are typically over 100 for a similarly sized car. For example, a 2013 Leaf is the equivalent of 115MPG, almost twice as efficient. My 3-year old Tesla, a much larger vehicle with a lot more passenger and storage room, is 89MPGe. The newer ones are even higher. The Model 3 should be considerably higher than that. Long term, I don't see HFC vehicles competing much against pure electric cars. The complexity alone means that they will always be more expensive, especially as the cost of batteries drops. The cost today of a Toyota Mirai is $58,335. This is for a car with 0-60 of 9.4 seconds and a top speed of 108MPH, not much better than a Prius. The Mirai will suffer the same problems as a Prius as well. The Mirai depends on a battery pack for acceleration and regenerative braking, just like a Prius. My last car was a Prius. It does poorly going up mountain grades and the Mirai will suffer the same problem. Unlike a Prius, the power output of the PEM stack will be considerably lower by 75K miles. A BEV car can put out considerably more power for a longer time since it isn't restricted to the limited output of the PEM stack. I've taken my Tesla up a number of steep mountain grades where my Prius would struggle without breaking a sweat. The Tesla Model 3 and other long range BEVs will cost considerably less than the Mirai. The Model 3 will also have considerably more room inside and storage space. The ONLY advantage the Mirai has is that it can be filled relatively quickly. In just about every other metric it falls short. Today I can take my Tesla most places in the country with the number of places I can't drive to without superchargers rapidly diminishing. By the time the model 3 rolls out the entire country will be pretty much covered. As it is, in California where most of them are sold, even out of the way places are getting covered. There's a charging station going in right near the entrance to Yosemite, for example and even highway 395 along the eastern Sierra Nevada mountains is covered.

Let's compare:

Hydrogen filling stations

vs

Plugshare chargers
Tesla Superchargers
Tesla Superchargers by the end of 2016 (click on 2016). This number should double by 2017.

The closest hydrogen fueling station to my house is 15 miles away from my house. My EV charging station is in my garage. This covers over 90% of my driving needs. I pay $50/month for the electricity and drive around 1000 miles/month. According to this article, the Mirai

Cool, where can I fill up?

Here are a list of currently open or soon-to-open stations in California: http://cafcp.org/stationmap

You may want to check your tracking then, because there are very real hydrogen cars running around in California and quite a few fueling stations.

That is not vapor, any more than the tiny handful of all-electric cars actually sold is.

To prove your point, could you please name me a single make and model of car that I can walk down to the local dealer and purchase today? I've actually tried googling it and can't seem to find an answer. This article says that hydrogen cars will be on the road in 2015. However they also say that the cars will not be sold, they will be leased (because of the high cost).

You're saying that they're not vapor, but I can't find a shred of evidence to support your claim.

The use of hydrogen is inevitable, as the engineering challenges there are much easier to get over than the mythical better battery.

Telsa has just driven across the country in 72 hours. If your statement were true, why aren't we seeing similar headlines about all the hydrogen cars on the road today? It might be because there's only 10 hydrogen fueling stations in the US. The evidence says that they're solving the battery engineering challenges faster than the hydrogen ones.

Compared to gas, battery tech may seem a bit "cloudy" but hydrogen has truly been vapor since as long as I've been tracking it (early 90s).

You may want to check your tracking then, because there are very real hydrogen cars running around in California and quite a few fueling stations.

That is not vapor, any more than the tiny handful of all-electric cars actually sold is.

The use of hydrogen is inevitable, as the engineering challenges there are much easier to get over than the mythical better battery.

green technology with a system that is designed to make conglomerates more filthy rich rather than solve anything

Please explain how that's true of hydrogen.

we get it from Natural Gas which would be EASIER to make part of the fuel system given current infrastructure

But it's less efficient. Burning natural gas in ICV's means the inefficiency of ICV's is part of the equation. Fuel cells are much more efficient:

Well-to-wheels studies, which compare various fuel pathways and vehicle types, show that hydrogen produced from natural gas and used in a fuel cell vehicle is twice as efficient and 55% cleaner than gasoline through a conventional vehicles.

Moreover, in the future hydrogen can be produced using electricity and water. It's ideal for power sources like solar and wind, since the hydrogen can be produced only when the sun is shining or the wind is blowing, and stored in a tank.

California is already beginning to build an infrastructure for a hydrogen future. Thankfully there's no silly messing around with biodiesel (which is complicated and requires farming). Their main site is here:

http://www.hydrogenhighway.ca.gov/ ..and there's a map here:
http://www.cafcp.org/fuel-vehl_map.html
http://www.hydrogenhighway.ca.gov/facts/cah2net_ma ps.pdf

(Warning, last link there is a PDF but it's more detailed). And these guys:

http://www.stuartenergy.com/ ..are one of the key companies that seem to be making the equipment for a fueling station. There are also a bunch of car manufacturers participating like GM, Ford, Chrysler, Toyota, Honda, Nissan and BMW... full list here:

http://www.hydrogenhighway.ca.gov/partners/partner s.htm

Anyway, the plan seems to be to concentrate on the population centers first (cities), then to gradually build hydrogen fueling stations out along the highways connecting the major population centers. This should solve the "chicken-and-egg" problem of needing widespread hydrogen stations before anyone is able to sell hydrogen cars.

Eventually (I guess), there will be enough hydrogen stations to sell hydrogen cars outside of fleet leases, then hydrogen stations will gradually replace gasoline stations. And it'll spread. I know I'd buy a hydrogen car tomorrow if it had a comparable capacity to my existing vehicle, they were available, and there was a fueling station within a 10 mile radius!

The nice thing about Hydrogen is that development has come so far in so little time - and it looks like all the big problems are finally coming together: efficient solar electric generation is on the way (or there's always the genetically-engineered bacteria that produces hydrogen); nano-engineered nickel has the promise of efficient hydrogen storage (instead of using exotic metals); advanced fuel cells do a fantastic job at hydrogen to electricity conversion; ultracapacitors work better than batteries for storing energy stored during regenerative braking.

Yes, the biggest problem with hydrogen is currently production - but it's simply that we've not yet built such an infrastructure because there's not yet been the demand. It doesn't matter how you make the electricity required to extract hydrogen from water via simple chemistry (nuclear, solar, mirror in space, etc). But when you think of the logistics of digging up and transporting millions of barrels of oil halfway around the world - and that energy companies do this daily - it seems like there would be no problem for them to scale hydrogen production up if they wanted to.

Our hydrogen future is gradually coming together. I can't wait.

They designed specifically for advancing the future of fuel cell vehicles:

http://www.cafcp.org/aboutus.html

They have 15 installations now, and have 9 more planned.

http://www.cafcp.org/fuel-vehl_map.html

There are 65 fuel cell vehicles in California.

They designed specifically for advancing the future of fuel cell vehicles:

http://www.cafcp.org/aboutus.html

They have 15 installations now, and have 9 more planned.

http://www.cafcp.org/fuel-vehl_map.html

There are 65 fuel cell vehicles in California.