Hydrogen Fuel Cell Cars vs Electric Cars – Which Is Really The Car Of The Future?

With gas prices being so high, alternative fuel vehicles have become a popular topic. Two of the types of vehicles that tend to get a lot of press are the hydrogen fuel cell powered vehicles and electric powered vehicles. Both are lauded as the way of the future

But which of these two options are really has the better chance of being the car your children drive.

Let's look at hydrogen fuel cells first. When burned in an engine, the only emissions giving off is water, so a hydrogen powered vehicle is a zero emission vehicle. Hydrogen is also a better fuel than gasoline, it actually has the highest energy content per unit of weight of any known fuel.

Hydrogen is also a very abundant element. While current methods for making hydrogen are done by using fossil fuels, such as natural gas, coal, and oil, American wouldn't be dependent on foreign oil anymore. Also, hydrogen can be extracted from water, and we all know there's a lot of water on this planet.

However, hydrogen is not without its share of drawbacks. Probably the biggest problem right now is that it would require an entire new infrastructure. While gas stations could be outfitted with hydrogen fueling stations that would take years. Also, the technology to store hydrogen efficiently is still not ready for prime time.

Then there's the electric car. Electric cars can also be considered zero emission vehicles since they give off no emission when running. However, electric cars do require power from the electric grid, which does give off emissions. As the electric grid gets cleaner, though, so do electric cars, and electric powered cars are substantially less polluting than gasoline powered cars due to the fact that power plants are far cleaner and more efficient than an internal combustion engine in a vehicle.

The technology for mainstream electric cars is also not quite ready for all the major manufacturers to stop making gasoline powered cars, but it's much closer than hydrogen currently is. The challenge with electric cars right now is the batteries. The batteries are both expensive and current models, like the Tesla Roadster, have a range of only 250 miles – great for commuting, but not so good for road trips. The other problem is the length of time these vehicles take to charge. It's not simply a matter stopping at your local power station and plugging in for five minutes and leaving. A typical charging cycle for current prototypes is 4-5 hours – again, fine if you're commuting, but impossible for a road trip. While technology is being developed to make charging your vehicle as quick as quick as filling up with gas, it has a ways to go before it's ready, just like hydrogen fuel cells.

Fleets of electric cars will certainly be hitting the roads sooner hydrogen fuel cell cars, but which one ultimately ends up being the vehicle of choice for American drivers remains to be seen as both have plenty of challenges to overcome before people will readily give up their cheap gas powered cars in favor of these alternatives.

Who Killed The Electric Car?

Ever watch this movie; "Who Killed the Electric Car?" starring Ed Begley Jr. and Phyllis Diller; directed by Chris Paine. It's an awful site for anyone who loves the environment. We hate to see the smog when we look out over a cities horizon, but we do. Cars are known to cause the most pollution out of any culprit. After learning this why are we still driving in those gas guzzling polluting machines? Well, this movie sheds a little bit of light on that.

The movie's underlying message is all about the death and return of the electric car. It goes into the history of on particular electric car the Prius; where it began, how it sold at first, how it's doing now, and how it will do in the future.

Who killed the electric car picture one

The film talks about why we have entered an age where we are almost completely dependent on foreign oil. Instead of buying cars that are energy efficient, people are more likely to buy huge SUV's that suck down more gas than necessary. Obviously, if you walk around and look at the cars driving, you can see this in action. People are driving huge cars; why? Commercials will say that they are safe and insurance companies lower your premiums. If you are in the business world, you know that large cars sell for higher prices even if there is only a little more production cost. Companies have to stay competitive in the market. GM, in recent years, has had problems and need to make more money; thus, they need to sell the high marked items, not electric vehicles.

Although, the movie does shoe the bad side of the car companies and how they destroy the image of the electric car, there are others who see that the movie is not truthful. Like any documentary of this sort ( Like "Supersizeme") some of the facts are very one sided. For example, one fact not mentioned is;10 years ago, electric cars were less effective because the batteries they ran on held less power. In addition, the price of the cars were about, $299 to over $574 per month which is pretty steep compared to other cars leaving it only to a small minority of car purchasers. Also, there are no numbers shown in the movie that coheres with there accusations. Finally, they never mention the fact that electric cars are powered by power plants which cause harm to the environment in the end anyway (the only difference is this is easier to control rather than 100k cars)

If you are interested in electric power and electric cars, I assume you will go off and watch this film. It is one side of the story that should be supplemented by other research. There are two sides to this conspiracy so you do need to see both sides. Read all the information including specifications of all the vehicles on the market today as well as in the past. Some of the information might get confusing like the drag coefficients and all of that but you can still learn a lot.