AutoblogGreen

1. great now all we need is to figure out how to economically manufacture all the hydrogen and how to finance $1 mil cars and we are all set :) Happy April 1st to everyone

Posted at 8:30PM on Apr 1st 2008 by darius

2. Call me when we've figured out how to mine the Oort cloud. Or Jupiter. Whatever.

Posted at 8:33PM on Apr 1st 2008 by Luke

3. is this an April Fools joke? ... seriously?

Posted at 8:56PM on Apr 1st 2008 by Peekoyle

4. GM has an interesting habit of backing the most useless inefficient technologies.

It is the largest proponent of E85 (boondoggle) and now hydrogen (future boondoggle).

It then talks smack on diesel and its one EV related product the Volt is quickly pricing itself out of public affordability. I doubt GM will kill the electric car this time, instead they will kill GM.

Posted at 9:07PM on Apr 1st 2008 by Snowdog

5. Did the guy even give any figures for what a fuel cell to propel one of these cars (just the cell, forget the mechanicals) currently costs?

Posted at 9:40PM on Apr 1st 2008 by fnc

6. So, I was on youtube watching the videos of the big EV rally outside last week's CARB meeting, and this lady gets up and starts talking about how she got her RAV4-EV six years, and she's been driving it all this time. She's covered 60,000 miles over six years, and HAS NOT BOUGHT ONE DROP OF GASOLINE IN SIX YEARS!

Let that sink in a bit. Imagine yourself not buying gasoline for six years. Just think about it. Visualize it.

People, the solution was at hand six years ago. It's not 15 to 20 years away. We don't need to spend 10 billion dollars of taxpayer money to get there. We already had it six freaking years ago! Enough with the H2 fantasy already!

(Actually, I'll admit, I still think H2 might be a good solution for aircraft. Batteries will probably always be too heavy for flight. But for ground transportion, EVs can do it!)

Posted at 9:47PM on Apr 1st 2008 by BlackbirdHighway

7. BlackbirdHighway:
The hydrogen car is a red herring created by Big Auto and Big Oil to deflect public thinking and government funding away from the BEV. If you haven't figured it out yet, it's to the auto industry's advantage to slow up BEV marketing and to keep the public driving complicated, expensive, huge gasoline cars. The last thing they want is a disruptive technology like electric cars taking profits away from their ICEs.

If anyone hasn't watched "WHO KILLED THE ELECTRIC CAR?" I suggest it's worth your time.

Posted at 10:15PM on Apr 1st 2008 by Lad

8. Nothing spells Conspiracy like this Obvious Business Conspiracy.
More proof GM is nothing but a front organization for Big Oil. It's time to get a Democratic President and Congress and use the RICO act against these A**Holes.

Posted at 11:39PM on Apr 1st 2008 by mike

9. This is laughable in the respect that SUDDENLY a ramp up on expensive hydrogen fuel cells is now possible, but, the hybrid power train Was and Is Just Too Expensive. BS from the Auto-Oil Industry.

Posted at 11:50PM on Apr 1st 2008 by mike

10. Hydrogen is just a way for Big Oil to keep in the loop once oil has run out.

Posted at 12:19AM on Apr 2nd 2008 by Mark

11. All I can say to Larry Burns is If he's not getting a Substantial Kickback from Big Oil he's the Sucker of the Year.

Posted at 12:34AM on Apr 2nd 2008 by mike

12. Write your Congressman/person and DEMAND they refuse to pay for a Hydrogen Infrastructure!

Posted at 12:36AM on Apr 2nd 2008 by mike

13. Didn't last week CARB argued that they needed to lower the 25,000 ZEV because the technology is NOT ready..blah..blah. Well the EV (Tesla) is in production and FCV (GM) is "ready", boy did the CARB folks got fooled big time!!!

Posted at 12:36AM on Apr 2nd 2008 by Altfuelguy

14. I approuve gm.

Posted at 12:53AM on Apr 2nd 2008 by A.Brien

15. If by "ready" he means H2 cars that actually can be driven, well, they've been driveable for over 30 years.

If by "ready" he means H2 cars that are practical and affordable by someone other than billionaires or fiscally irresponsible governments, no way! H2 fuel cells are still far too expensive, and PEM membranes have a short lifespan, leading to high repair and maintenance costs. H2 storage is still extremely expensive and limited capacity, H2 ICE cars are plagued by high prices, low efficiency, short driving ranges, and high operating costs. H2 is currently more expensive than petroleum fuels, and will always be more expensive than electricity. The high cost of the raw materials needed to make fuel cells and H2 storage tanks assures that mass production techniques cannot bring down the cost enough to make it affordable anytime in the forseeable future.

Interesting that the cost of installing 12,000 H2 filling stations, $15 billion, is only a small fraction of the oil companies combined profits. So why haven't the oil companies invested some of their loot to build them? Easy, they want the governments to shell out all the money for construction, so if it fails they won't be out anything. If the impossible happens and H2 sales take off, they will sweep in, take them over, and rake up even more loot. Either way, Joe Q Public gets screwed.

Posted at 2:47AM on Apr 2nd 2008 by Chris M

16. But... But... But... H2 is the PERFECT fuel... for people who can freely spend other people's money!

Posted at 6:23AM on Apr 2nd 2008 by TX CHL Instructor

17. Wow and H2 cars only cost 1M and the fuel cell last a whopping 50K miles. Let see what fuel cell car is currently sitting on the moon? Oh, its electric battery vehicle not fuel cell.

Posted at 8:47AM on Apr 2nd 2008 by phil easler

18. "Without this investment, the U.S. will get left behind."

By whom? Neither Europe nor Japan are seriously pushing hydrogen beyond the extent to which their own and US taxpayers are willing to fund the R&D.

Somehow I doubt Botswana will beat the US to the punch.

Posted at 9:44AM on Apr 2nd 2008 by rgseidl

19. Larry Burns take note: If you want to start selling your FC cars, why not have your GM dealerships equipped with the mobile/portable hydrogen fueling stations (severalcompanies sell these). They can be easily delivered to these dealerships and within 24 hours be fueling your FC cars. Nothing wrong with selling your FC cars and then having the dealership also selling the hydrogen to fuel them. Once you start, the big oil companies will see the handwriting on the wall and
waste little time in following suit. Granted, the dealership hydrogen fueling stations will not permit long distance travel but at least the FC cars can navigate within reasonable distances around a metro area.

Posted at 9:54AM on Apr 2nd 2008 by jimn ahlstrom

20. fuel cells definitely have their uses, even in some vehicles, but not for a while. We need to focus on EV's/PHEV's and more biodiesel for big trucks.

I can see Hydrogen replacing large trucks (including tractor trailers) diesels b/c electric drive is overpowered by how heavy weight really drains batteries. That is where PHEV could work, but Hydrogen may be better. Also, hydrogen fuel cells would be good for powering houses and military use too.

But for basic transportation, EV seems like the obvious. Way easy to setup trickle charge stations all over the city for cheap refill, and high voltage, fast-charge systems here and there (and along freeways). I want my electric car!

Posted at 2:46PM on Apr 2nd 2008 by Noah