Why Hydrogen Cars Haven't Taken Off

By Jacqueline Star

Drive around the street and you'll most likely see lots of traditional cars, lots of hybrids and maybe an electric car once a while. You'll hardly ever see a vehicle powered by hydrogen. That's rather surprising considering the fact that experts predicted that we would all be driving hydrogen powered autos by now. You may see one once in awhile in California and even that would be an extremely rare sighting.

Two types of hydrogen cars exist; one that is powered directly by hydrogen and the other uses a fuel cell which powers the engine. The fuel cell makes electricity out of hydrogen.. There are no pollutants as the result of the burning of hydrogen.

So why has this idea not taken off? Mainly because it's not practical due to monetary reasons. Rare and expensive substances are used to build the fuel cell. Hydrogen is not a natural substance. Instead it must be made from methane or some other fossil fuels. It can also be a byproduct of such resources as wind, solar or nuclear. Using these resources is not practical when a motor vehicle is involved. Thus the need for the fuel cell. Also, there are not nearly enough stations around the nation where people can fill up their cars. Another major factor is cost.

If you thought gasoline was expensive, well hydrogen is much more expensive. One gallon of gas may cost four dollars but one kg of hydrogen (the equivalent of one gallon of gas) can cost anywhere from fifteen to twenty bucks. Plus there are just not enough filling stations in place to support a large number of users. Right now California has the most with 13 pilot filling stations. Finally, the cost of the car itself would probably be out of most people's reach. That is why we are seeing auto makers and governments relying so much on electric cars as the way to cleanly propel ourselves from one place to another.

Still, many major auto makers have pilot programs that are exploring the feasibility of hydrogen cars. Honda has a hydrogen car called the FCX Clarity. The first generation of the vehicle appeared in 1999 and the Japanese company is now offering the second generation model. Honda is actually leasing the car to regular consumers in California.

However, we are not going to see a lot of hydrogen cars on our highways until we have a viable infrastructure through which the fuel can be distributed, the cost of manufacturing fuel cells become more reasonable and the cost of a kilo of hydrogen falls more in line with a gallon of gasoline. Most analysts say we are a decade away.