Hydrogen tour hypes fuel, dodges the big questions

VANCOUVER–The pace of development of hydrogen fuel-cell vehicles is accelerating, as many manufacturers have advanced prototypes on the road for real-world testing around the globe.

To show their claim of feasibility is authentic, eight manufacturers watched their alternative-fuel vehicles arrive in Vancouver on June 3, the finish line of the Hydrogen Road Tour 2009 that began near San Diego nine days earlier.

The zero-emission vehicles sipped their hydrogen fuel as they travelled along the Pacific coast to Vancouver. If the British Columbia government has its way, the city's hydrogen fuel-cell industry will grow dramatically.

The tour was the latest attempt to generate public awareness and support for the concept of hydrogen filling stations everywhere.

The Hydrogen Road Tour (hydrogenroadtour.com) was an initiative of the California Fuel Cell Partnership, an umbrella organization for numerous OEM manufacturers and government agencies.

The route followed major highways north, stopping in the big cities and at government facilities – plus, of course, at each one of the few dozen hydrogen filling stations along the way. For those older cars with limited range, there was a mobile refuelling tanker.

At the Vancouver Convention Centre, the public got to see – and drive – the Chevy Equinox Fuel Cell, Honda FCX Clarity, Hyundai Tucson FCEV, Kia Borrego FCEV, Mercedes F-Cell, Nissan X-Trail FCV, Toyota FCHV-adv Highlander and Volkswagen HyMotion.

Only the manufacturers who are members of a fuel-cell partnership were invited on the drive, although Ford snuck in with a couple of the fuel-cell Focuses that are used by the City of Vancouver. Absent was BMW, which also has hydrogen technology, but applies it to piston internal combustion engines, so it wasn't welcome at a fuel-cell event.

It was fascinating to hop from one nearly irreplaceable million-dollar prototype to another for a couple of hours, although safely negotiating the notorious Vancouver traffic in them was quite another story – to say nothing of the mounting points for the security bollards in the plaza, which claimed some of the undercarriage of the two lowest-slung vehicles, from VW, putting both on the sidelines. It was the only incident of the tour – and it occurred in the last 50 metres.

After driving several of the cars, the improvements made over just the past couple of years were apparent. The Mercedes entry was the oldest design, from 2006, and the ones from Honda, Kia and Toyota were the newest. The latest ones had smaller fuel-cell stacks putting out more power; lithium-ion batteries that store more juice; longer driving ranges (up to 700 km) thanks to greater hydrogen tank storage pressures (except for Honda, which chooses to maintain lower pressures); and capabilities to start in cold temperatures as low as -30C.

In fact, the average driver will notice no major difference – other than silence – in a fuel-cell vehicle. With all modern comfort, convenience and safety items, the cars require no major compromises and offer much to like besides zero emissions.

The manufacturers continue to work on cost (still prohibitive), lifespan and reliability, but for the most part, fuel-cell vehicles are close to being ready for sale. Indeed, Honda offers the FCX Clarity for lease in Los Angeles, and a few of the other cars will be made available to the public on a loan basis.

But what is wrong with this vision of hydrogen-fuelled motoring nirvana? The lack of hydrogen infrastructure – refuelling, distribution, service and repair – is the biggest impediment to the marketing of fuel-cell cars. And nobody, not the oil companies, not the federal governments in either the U.S. or Canada, has much of a plan to build the hundreds of filling stations – at an estimated $4 million to $6 million each – that would be needed.

All the car manufacturers can do is shrug their collective shoulders and look at all the hydrogen "thrown away" as waste in industrial chemical processes. One plant in North Vancouver sends enough hydrogen up its chimney to fuel 20,000 vehicles.

So, the manufacturers seem to be doing their part, as the technology improves year by year. But what is next on the road to a North American Hydrogen Highway?

Who will develop and pay for the heavy infrastructure needed? When will the vehicle costs be the desired (by manufacturers) 10 to 15 per cent above an equivalent car as we know it today?

Could drivers just decide that plug-in hybrids and battery electrics are as far as they need to go in cost or technology? Are fuel cells even necessary, when existing internal combustion engines can be adapted to hydrogen fuel (BMW's method)?

A clue to the future may have been given by the U.S. Department of Energy. It has redirected some funding for fuel-cell development into electrics and plug-in hybrids, a policy change not exactly publicized at the event. Perhaps fuel cells have dimmer prospects than the Hydrogen Road Tour would have us believe.

It will take another several years to find out all the answers.

But a few hundred people lined up in Vancouver to drive one of these potential vehicles of the future and such interaction may be a start of something positive for hydrogen fuel-cell cars.

 Honda hydrogen fuel-cell Clarity road ready.

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