Positive Predictions for Hydrogen Vehicles

Yesterday I posted about the prediction in India that hydrogen energy will be a viable alternative to fossil fuels for its transportation sector by 2020. In a story about efforts to develop hydrogen options, there are more glowing predictions for hydrogen fuel’s potential…

Honda, BMW and General Motors Corp. report they are developing vehicles that will run on hydrogen, the simplest, lightest and most abundant of elements.

GM predicts it could have cleanburning, hydrogenpowered fuel cell vehicles on the road within the next five or six years. The company estimates that fuel cell propulsion is about twice as efficient as that of an internal combustion engine.

Earlier this year BMW presented its new hydrogen vehicle, the Hydrogen 7, as part of the company’s global clean energy promotional campaign.

Not everybody has a rosy view though…

Other major automakers do not predict mass production of hydrogen vehicles until at least a decade from now, citing the difficulty and cost of producing, storing and transporting the element in either its gaseous or liquid form.

But even in that arena, some are decidedly bullish on the possibilities…

The FreedomCAR and Fuel Partnership, made up of the U.S. Department of Energy along with BP America, Chevron, Exxon Mobil, Conoco Phillips, Shell Hydrogen LLC and a council of three major automakers, believes that by 2010 it can create the national hydrogen fuel infrastructure needed to support fuel cell vehicles.