While the idea behind Hydrogen is very promising, and news media has gotten everyone imagining vehicles running on water, the reality of it is very different.
Hydrogen is everywhere, but actually getting straight H2 is quite expensive. To get it from water, for example, requires a lot of electricity if you want any useful amount.
Storing hydrogen is difficult. Pressureized tanks are very large and dont hold a particularly large amount of hydrogen. Other methods of storing it are being looked at, various membranes and such, but none of those are going to be in production for several years.
Hydrogen is just used to generate electricity anyways. You could concievably swap out the battery in the roadster for a few hydrogen cells and a big fat tank, and it would run just as well (assuming fuel cells can put out the same amount of electricity, which is concievable) So the mechanics of the rest of the car are largely the same between hydrogen and electric cars.
So whats better, a big battery or fuel cells? battery is available RIGHT NOW. Fuel cells are not, and are not going to be available for some time yet.
But the big advantage that batteries have over hydrogen, is the infrastructure. Converting every one of the 150,000+ gas stations in America to use hydrogen would be EXTREMELY expensive, and certainly not many gas station owners will be able to afford to do so. And untill there are Hydrogen cars on the road, there is no incentive to do so. Its a chicken and egg problem: no one buys hydrogen cars untill they have somewhere they can refuel them, no one builds stations to refuel them untill there are cars to sell fuel to.
Electricity, on the other hand, is available everywhere. The roadster can be plugged into an ordinary household outlet. And the US electrical grid can support the charging of tens of millions of electric cars, provided they do so at night, rather than at peak hours. Making special charging stations where you can charge your car will likely only be useful if you want a very fast recharge.
As for the range thing, 200 miles may not sound like that great, but in your day to day driving to and from work, only a small percentage of people travel more than 50 miles in a day. For commuting to and from work, there is not actually a need for further range. But thats an issue easily resolved long before hydrogen becomes feasible.
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I think I'll stick with/change to Hydrogen
While the idea behind Hydrogen is very promising, and news media has gotten everyone imagining vehicles running on water, the reality of it is very different.
Hydrogen is everywhere, but actually getting straight H2 is quite expensive. To get it from water, for example, requires a lot of electricity if you want any useful amount.
Storing hydrogen is difficult. Pressureized tanks are very large and dont hold a particularly large amount of hydrogen. Other methods of storing it are being looked at, various membranes and such, but none of those are going to be in production for several years.
Hydrogen is just used to generate electricity anyways. You could concievably swap out the battery in the roadster for a few hydrogen cells and a big fat tank, and it would run just as well (assuming fuel cells can put out the same amount of electricity, which is concievable) So the mechanics of the rest of the car are largely the same between hydrogen and electric cars.
So whats better, a big battery or fuel cells? battery is available RIGHT NOW. Fuel cells are not, and are not going to be available for some time yet.
But the big advantage that batteries have over hydrogen, is the infrastructure. Converting every one of the 150,000+ gas stations in America to use hydrogen would be EXTREMELY expensive, and certainly not many gas station owners will be able to afford to do so. And untill there are Hydrogen cars on the road, there is no incentive to do so. Its a chicken and egg problem: no one buys hydrogen cars untill they have somewhere they can refuel them, no one builds stations to refuel them untill there are cars to sell fuel to.
Electricity, on the other hand, is available everywhere. The roadster can be plugged into an ordinary household outlet. And the US electrical grid can support the charging of tens of millions of electric cars, provided they do so at night, rather than at peak hours. Making special charging stations where you can charge your car will likely only be useful if you want a very fast recharge.
As for the range thing, 200 miles may not sound like that great, but in your day to day driving to and from work, only a small percentage of people travel more than 50 miles in a day. For commuting to and from work, there is not actually a need for further range. But thats an issue easily resolved long before hydrogen becomes feasible.