Hydrogen Cars Closer Than They Appear

One point of these tests is to get real-world feedback from drivers, passengers and maintenance crews on how these buses and cars accelerate, brake, wear out and stand up to the elements compared with conventional counterparts.

A quick ride in one of the Priuses was encouraging. The accelerating and braking and overall feel was no different from a conventional car. The engine was so quiet that Jon Bjorn Skulason, a general manager at Icelandic New Energy and one of the first to get his hands on one, says he wishes that when he's idling the dashboard would reassure him that he hasn't stalled.

Another point of these test runs is to get vehicles out on the roads where people can see them and get used to the idea of sharing the road with (or sitting on top of) hydrogen tanks.

This is no small thing. Apparently hydrogen doesn't have the greatest public image.

Skulason, INE's chief hydrogen evangelist, spends a lot of time reassuring people that hydrogen is perfectly safe. Thanks to these public relations efforts, most Icelanders now associate hydrogen with clean energy. But, he says, the average Japanese consumer associates hydrogen with bombs, while the gas makes Americans think of the Hindenberg disaster, which, Skulason is quick to point out, was caused by flammable paint on the zeppelin and not the hydrogen inside it.

Here in the U.S. the Department of Energy, local municipalities and auto companies are similarly working to promote hydrogen and get cars and fueling stations out where they can be seen. Autobloggreen has a great roundup of these developments.

Daimler recently got noted car buff Jay Leno to test drive its BMW Hydrogen 7 ICE car and make a video about it. Honda (HMC) announced in late November that it will lease FCX Clarity fuel-cell-powered sedans to a limited number of consumers in the Los Angeles area next summer.

General Motors (GM) has been looking this autumn for everyday people in New York City, Washington, DC, and California to test drive 100 fuel-cell powered Equinox SUVs.

Where will all these pioneering drivers refuel? There are already 122 fueling stations in the U.S. and Canada. The National Hydrogen Association has a list if you want to learn if there's one near you.

There are clusters of them around Detroit, Toronto, Vancouver, San Francisco and Los Angeles. There's also a growing dotted chain along the East Coast, as Shell tries to develop a hydrogen corridor there to mirror California's Hydrogen Highway, which has the state's civil servants test driving cars from Ford(F) and other auto makers.

Hydrogen fuel is more expensive than gasoline, but mass production could bring it down to comparable levels. In Iceland, Skulason estimates that if they can get 300 hydrogen cars on the road and four more fueling stations up and running, they'll reach the tipping point necessary to wean the fuel off the subsidies it receives and jump-start his country's hydrogen economy.

In the U.S., much more of a critical mass would be needed of course and it will take longer to reach such a tipping point, but rising gas prices are lowering the bar for hydrogen prices to be competitive.

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