Ford, Nissan, Daimler Agree To ‘Unique’ 3-Way Agreement To Launch First Affordable Fuel Cell Auto...

[Purveyor]

Source: Auto World News

Ford Motor Company, Nissan Motor Co., and Daimler AG have agreed to a three-way agreement to "accelerate the commercialization" of fuel cell electric vehicles. The companies released a joint press release to announce the news.

The companies are hoping to jointly develop common a fuel cell electric vehicle system while still reducing investment costs associated with the engineering of the technology Ford stated. The three companies will invest equally towards the project.

"Fuel cell electric vehicles are the obvious next step to complement today's battery electric vehicles as our industry embraces more sustainable transportation," said Mitsuhiko Yamashita, Member of the Board of Directors and Executive Vice President of Nissan Motor Co., Ltd., supervising Research and Development in the press release. "We look forward to a future where we can answer many customer needs by adding FCEVs on top of battery EVs within the zero-emission lineup."

Their FCEVs have each logged over 10 million km in test driver around the globe and in all kinds of diverse conditions. The companies plan to develop a common fuel cell stack and fuel cell system that can then be used by each respective company to launch separately branded FCEVs, which also don't produce CO2 while the vehicle is in drive.


Read more: http://www.autoworldnews.com/articles/3053/20130128/ford-nissan-daimler-ag-agree-unique-three-way-agreement-launch-first-affordable-fuel-cell-electric-vehicle-2017.htm

[Jackpine Radical]

1. I hail this as good news indeed.

Next question is, what kind of fuel to run the fuel cells? Could be anything from H2 to methane from chickenshit to hydrocarbons.

[adieu]

2. Could still be gasoline

The point is that the fuel cells would be far more clean in the exhaust, and may run at over 100 mpg.

[tinrobot]

3. Where will we be filling these up?

Hydrogen cars are one thing, fueling infrastructure is another. I hope they are pursuing the refueling side of the equation as well.

[Purveyor]

10. I know...they are still trying to figure out how to fill the tanks of all these gasoline burning

cars. I'll take my 'buggy whip' any day over those stinkers!

lol.

[windowpilot]

4. Ford Probe comes to mind,

what a misadventure that was...

[yurbud]

5. I wish they would do the same with hybrids and electrics

[NutmegYankee]

6. I wish we'd start making most new cars plug-in hybrids

That is really a method that we have the infrastructure for.

[thesquanderer]

7. plug-in infrastructure

It's not really there either. It's one thing in the suburbs where so many people keep their cars in their garages, which have electric. But elsewhere, including the most congested cities, huge numbers of cars are parked outside overnight, with no access to power.

[NutmegYankee]

9. That's a good point.

That would a great public works project if we as a nation ever get behind them again.

[kentauros]

12. Yet it isn't difficult to create it.

Here are a few options for charging stations:

WattStation: Yves Behar Designs A Charger Pretty Enough For Any Street

First They Install Solar. Now IKEA is Installing EV Charging at California Store

Charging Up Nissan's Electric Car Without Wires

30 Models of Plug-In Car Chargers Now Available Online via Home Depot

London Expands its Electric Car Charging Points As Part of Transportation Plans


And for electric scooters and motorcycles:
Plug In! First Electric Motorcycle Charging Stations in Barcelona


You can probably find more examples at TreeHugger. I just did a quick search through google

[supercats]

8. This Is Good News...

Finally a coming together of a segment of the auto industry to move forward in thinking and execution!!!
I can't wait to see the cars they produce in several years!!!

[Hatchling]

11. What are fuel cells?

Waht does this mean for elctric vehicles?

[Xithras]

13. Fuel cells are electric vehicles that generate their own power.

They're superior to current EV's in that they don't require you to lug a battery around and theoretically have unlimited range. They're inferior in that they require that you add fuel to the vehicle, like a gasoline burner.

The actual amount of pollution generated by fuel cells depends on the input fuel used. A gasoline powered fuel cell still generates some CO2, but it's a fraction of what is generated by regular IC engines, and they can pull more than 100MPG. A hydrogen fuel cell gets similar mileage, and its only pollution is pure water vapor.

As for which is better...it largely depends on where you live. If you live in an urban area and only drive 10-20 miles a day, a PEV is probably a better choice. If you live in the suburbs or commute to work every day, a fuel cell is going to be the best option to replace that smog belcher in your driveway.

The only real question is whether the market will support both PEV's and fuel cell vehicles at the same time. If not, fuel cells wil probably displace PEV's (fuel cells can work for everyone, but PEV's can't).

[bananas]

15. Here's an animation of a hydrogen fuel cell

Hydrogen and oxygen go in, water and electricity come out.
http://americanhistory.si.edu/fuelcells/basics.htm

[MAD Dave]

14. As an electrochemist,

I always thought that fuel cell electric vehicles were the future.

The currently one of the biggest hurdles is the fuelling infrastructure for hydrogen. I sincerely doubt that the initial FCEV's will use hydrogen fuel. The fuel cells will likely burn gasoline or E85. As previously mentioned the mileage should initially be near 100 mpg but should increase as the fuel cell technology is developed.

In my opinion, the biggest benefit of the development of FCEV's is the potential production of aftermarket conversion kits for older vehicles. Depending in the size of the actual reaction cell, these conversions could be quite easy to complete as well.