When will hydrogen fuel be available everywhere in the U.S.? Poll results

2015 Hyundai Tucson Fuel Cell, 2016 Toyota Mirai at hydrogen fueling station, Fountain Valley, CA

While you might think that any zero-emission vehicle would be viewed as a good thing, hydrogen fuel-cell vehicles continue to generate opposition among some electric-car fans.

Perhaps viewing them as competition for long-range battery electric vehicles of the sort now planned by virtually every car maker, they produce huge volumes of comments every time we write about them.

Now we have some data to show how well the Twitter followers of Green Car Reports think they can do in the market.

We simply polled those followers about when they thought that hydrogen fuel for vehicles would be available throughout the U.S.

The rough analogy would be as available as gasoline is today, at more than 100,000 separate fueling station locations throughout the 50 states.

The results were revealing.

When will hydrogen fuel be available everywhere in the U.S.?

— Green Car Reports (@GreenCarReports) August 24, 2016

More than six out of 10 Twitter followers who responded to the poll said hydrogen will "never" be available throughout the U.S.

The remaining 38 percent of votes were split several ways, with the next most common group being "2030 or later," chosen by 20 percent of respondents.

The choice of "2025" got only 12 percent of the votes, and the nearest-term answer, 2020, garnered a measly 6 percent of supporters.

In other words, the readers who responded to the poll really, really don't believe that hydrogen-fueled vehicles will ever become ubiquitous.

Honda Clarity teaser image, April 2016

The difference in zero-emission vehicle powertrains, of course, is that electricity in some form is generally found within a short distance of almost everywhere that cars are parked.

The same can't be said for hydrogen, which must be dispensed at pressures up to 10,000 pounds per square inch from pumps on specialized sites that currently run as high as $2 million per location to build.

We look forward to comparing the results of this poll to our latest poll, running now, which asks the same question—with the same set of date choices—about DC fast-charging instrastructure for electric cars.

Mercedes Will Have A Plug-In Fuel Cell SUV In 2017

When it comes to powertrains of the future, Mercedes cannot be accused of putting all its eggs in one basket. It says 48 volt mild hybrid systems will proliferate across its enter model line up in coming years. It is rushing to get plug-in hybrid cars on the market as soon as possible and says it will have a long range electric SUV on offer by 2019.

Now comes word that Mercedes will bring a new kind of car to market next year — a plug-in fuel cell SUV that can be powered by a battery or a hydrogen fuel cell. Based on the GLC model, it will have a range of about 300 miles before it needs to be recharged and/or refueled. Range on battery power alone is said to be 30 miles. The car is part of the $10.67 billion investment green technology Mercedes plans to make through the end of 2017.

“Daimler sees several different drive technologies co-existing in the future,” says Thomas Weber, head of development for Mercedes. “We have a broad portfolio of vehicles from compact cars to heavy trucks that require us to think holistically.”

The company first offered a fuel cell vehicle in 2010, when it started selling a small number of B-Class fuel cell compact cars. The technology is attractive because hydrogen tanks can be filled in about the same time as it take to pump a tankful of gasoline or diesel fuel. Still, a lack of hydrogen refueling stations is preventing many customers from actively considering a fuel cell car.

The pressure to invest in a range of new technologies despite low sales of hybrid and electric cars suggest more collaboration between car makers in the future in an attempt to reduce development costs of new technology. Christian Mohrdieck, who is the head of fuel cell development for Mercedes, says, “We’ll probably see more cooperation. There’s the advantage to save costs and also bundle volumes.”

Honda Clarity Will Come In Three Flavors, Accord Hybrid Returns

It’s official. The Honda Clarity fuel cell vehicle will share its platform with a plug-in hybrid and a battery electric version starting in 2017. The Clarity FCEV is scheduled to go on sale in the US late this year with a lease price of “under $500.” Yesterday,  American Honda executive vice president John Mendel said that plug-in hybrid and electric versions would follow in calendar year 2017. “We continue to view fuel cell as the ultimate, long-term solution to society’s energy and environmental concerns,” he said. But having a family of Clarity models is critical because, “this shared platform strategy will enable Honda to more efficiently respond to infrastructure and market developments.”

Honda is joining many other manufacturers who are designing new platforms that can accept a variety of powertrains. While Tesla Motors is all in on electric cars and electric cars only, the world’s major car makers are not ready to transition to building electric cars only any time soon. That point is likely still decades away. In the meantime, most see plug-in hybrids as the bridge between today and the cars of the future. Mendel says Honda expects the PHEV version of the Clarity will outsell the fuel cell and fully electric configurations but won’t discuss actual sales goals.

Honda is also ready to bring the Accord Hybrid back. It is scheduled to be in showrooms before summer and will feature a new two motor hybrid powertrain. Total horsepower is now 212, 8% more than for the old Accord Hybrid, which went out of production last year. The prior car was rated at 47 mpg combined, but Consumer Reports complained it only averaged 40 mpg during testing.

John Mendel told the press yesterday during an unveiling ceremony for the new Accord Hybrid that the car is rated 49 mpg city, 47 mpg highway, and 48 mpg combined under more stringent fuel economy ratings required by the government for 2017 models. That puts it in direct competition with the new Chevy Malibu Hybrid and hybrid models from Toyota, Ford, Hyundai, and Kia. Just when gas prices are the lowest in years, the market now has a wide variety of cars that get nearly 50 mpg to choose from. Will buyers flock to showrooms to buy one or will they be ignored by the masses? What do you think?

Source: Automobile, Detroit News

Massive New $50 Million SolarCity-Honda Megadeal Could Open FCEV Door

With barely a pause for breath after its groundbreaking MyPower solar financing announcement earlier this week, the leading solar company SolarCity is out with another megadeal. This one involves Honda in a $50 million venture to finance solar projects for Honda and Acura customers and dealerships in the U.S.

The new SolarCity-Honda deal actually adds $50 million to an existing $65 million solar financing pot that the two companies established last year, so it’s not exactly new as in never-before new.  However, when we first covered the launch of the partnership back in 2013 we skipped over an interesting angle that just occurred to us this minute.

Yep, that would be the f-word, as in fuel cell electric vehicles.

Fuel cell for FCX Clarity fuel cell electric vehicle (cropped) courtesy of Honda.

The New SolarCity-Honda Deal

The new $50 million SolarCity-Honda deal, announced just yesterday at the SXSW Eco conference in Texas, aims to drive the cost of on site solar power down to the affordability level by making the now-familiar power purchase agreement (PPA) platform available for a limited time to eligible Honda and Acura customers and dealers.

Under a PPA, property owners pay no money up front for their solar installation. They simply pay for the solar electricity they use on a monthly basis, which is typically less than what they would pay for grid-supplied electricity. The installer owns and maintains the hardware.

That MyPower SolarCity announcement from earlier this week added a new twist, which enables the property owner to lower their monthly payments by exercising a prepayment option.

SolarCity, Honda, And Your Solar Powered House

So, here’s where it gets interesting. For those of you new to the topic, among other high profile ventures the chairman of SolarCity is Elon Musk, who is also co-founder and CEO of Tesla Motors.

Tesla has focused like a laser on manufacturing superstar-quality plug in electric vehicles based on lithium-ion battery technology, so whatever SolarCity does to push the market for low cost, distributed solar energy give an assist to the market for Tesla Motors as well as other plug in EV manufacturers.

 

In terms of the Honda partnership, both SolarCity and Tesla stand to benefit from the solar-powered, EV-friendly house that Honda is demonstrating on the campus of UC-Davis in California (Ford and KB Home have also teamed up in a similar solar-EV home venture, btw, which is already being marketed in that state.)

SolarCity, Honda, and FCEVs

Keep in mind that fuel cell electric vehicles are EVs, too, and you can see how this will get even more interesting for Honda.

Here’s the pitch about that extra $50 million in solar financing from Honda’s press release (emphasis added):

Envisioning a future in which personal mobility products will be powered in large part by renewable energy, the two companies have begun implementing co-marketing programs that specifically encourage owners of either solar powered homes or plug-in electric vehicles to adopt the complementary product.

In case you’re wondering why Honda didn’t just come right out and say plug in electric vehicles or BEVs (fancyspeak for battery electric vehicles), that’s probably because along with its BEV lineup, Honda is one of the two leading automotive fuel cell patent holders globally.

Aside from getting ready to launch its new Clarity FCEV, Honda has teamed up with the other fuel cell patent leader, GM, in a major next-generation fuel cell and hydrogen production collaboration. That could end up leveraging the massive potential of the US Army market, given GM’s fuel cell demo project with the Army in Hawaii.

This is just a wild guess but given the advances in solar-powered hydrogen production, we’re also thinking that when Honda and GM say “next-generation” what they mean is sustainably sourced hydrogen.

Shorter version: SolarCity’s strategy of a seamless hookup between the EV market and distributed solar energy will eventually benefit FCEV owners as well as BEVs.

As for where all those FCEV owners might be, aside from the Army you can start with California, which is already a marketing hotspot for SolarCity and Tesla. FCEVs are in the state’s master plan for pushing the EV market forward, and construction is already under way on a network of hydrogen fueling stations in the state.

As with BEV charging stations, hydrogen fueling stations can be installed at some existing service stations, as demonstrated by a recent study by Sandia National Laboratories.

Add distributed, solar-powered hydrogen production and fueling to that network, and the issue of FCEV fueling convenience starts to drift away.

Did we mention that Honda already has a home-scaled, solar-powered hydrogen fueling station in the works?

Well, we just did. But if it’s starting to look like the SolarCity-Honda deal could end up undercutting Tesla’s BEV market, that’s way off in the future if ever at all.

Source: Gas 2.