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Right now, hydrogen gas is comparable in production cost to petrol. Water is the most abundant compound on our planet, so there's plenty to go around. Transport costs, however, are ten times as much. The fuel cells themselves are not cheap, partly because they contain platinum. The platinum component has to be reduced to a tenth or less to make the technology more affordable. Performance, although acceptable, still has to be improved to convince customers to switch to a fuel cell. With no increase in bulk, Mercedes is projecting a bump in power output from 60 kW to 120 kW, and range increased to 500 km. Other challenges involve reliability, particularly startup in freezing conditions. This is no problem in the tropics, but in colder climates, a car that has pure water in its propulsion system will be encountering some unique problems when the mercury drops below zero. When the fuel light starts flashing, a nearby hydrogen station is a must. Right now, this is still a problem, but Mercedes estimates that building that hydrogen infrastructure will cost less per year than what is currently being spent just to maintain the current oil-based network. All of those developments in technology and infrastructure can occur rapidly. 1994's NECAR 1 was a large van, and the fuel cell and propulsion system weighed 800 kg and took up all of the cargo area. Barely ten years later, the system fits under the floorboard of the miniscule A-Class. The most significant feature of this launch is that the F-Cell is not a concept car. It’s ready to run from day one on Singapore’s hot and humid streets. There are six such A-Class cars running around Singapore, one with the government environmental agency, and one each for DaimlerChrysler and partners Michelin, Lufthansa, Conrad Hotel and BP. Another 55 are testing in other cities. The purpose is to gather feedback from real world testing in all sorts of conditions. They will be pitting their usability against Detroit’s freezing weather and Tokyo’s city traffic. Just as younger generations have never known a world without the Internet or cellphones, in the future, children will not have known cars that are pollutants. If you have a small child, there is a distinct possibility that her first car will be powered by a fuel cell. The implications of a hydrogen-powered economy derived from renewable sources, are enormous. No engine noise, no fumes, and perhaps best of all, no oil wars. Part of it began inside the 4-meter shell of the F-Cell A-Class. |
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