The Future Of The Car?

Cars and other domestic vehicles count for almost a quarter of all carbon dioxide, (CO2), emissions in the World.

Then add to that the dwindling supply of oil and it looks like the existence of the car could be in trouble.

Toyota has attempted to alleviate this issue with its hybrid car, Prius. Although this is becoming more and more successful, the long term triumph may be short lived. Being part electric, part petroleum fuelled, the Prius still needs petrol as well as an electric motor in order to drive and it’s rather expensive to purchase initially. There are more downsides too. The efficiency is only marginally better than a modern diesel, and if you drive like a lunatic then the consumption could actually end up being worse. Plus the amount of CO2 released just to make these cars could cancel out many of the environmental benefits and we haven’t even touched on the disposal of the batteries when it comes to getting rid of your car.

However, Japanese car manufacturer Honda has been working on a new concept, the FCX Clarity, which may change the way that cars are designed forever. The Clarity’s power source is hydrogen. Now when we mention hydrogen, the burning Hindenburg may have instantly appeared in your mind. Alas don’t distress, it’s just as safe (or unsafe for those glass half empty people), as the petrol we use in our own cars today. In fact it’s less flammable than gasoline and has been acquitted for being the cause of that horrific airship fire.

So why use hydrogen?

Well firstly, hydrogen is the most abundant element on the planet and has the highest energy content of any of the existing fuels we use today. Plus it can be made anywhere in the world. It’s also non-toxic and the only by-product when burnt is water. Sounds pretty good so far.

So are there any downsides to using it? Well yes there are. Hydrogen, although everywhere around us, is not easily extractable. It can’t simply be sucked out of the air or scraped off the wall. It’s always attached to something else and the methods of separating it are almost always through the use of electricity or fossil fuels. Surely the whole point in using this element is to reduce the use of these diminishing fuels? This is where renewable energy such as wind and tidal could play a big part.

How does the car move? Well in simple terms the hydrogen is combined with oxygen in a fuel cell, which Honda has named a ‘V flow fuel cell stack’ After a bit of magic, this creates electricity, which is sent to an electric motor. The electric motor then propels the vehicle, which is controlled by the driver through the use of a Power Drive Unit (PDU) that tells the car how fast you want to go. So apart from just water being the waste product, the car will be capable of doing more than 80mpg and have similar power to that of it’s petrol/diesel equivalents. Sounds good doesn’t it, and there’s more. Because there are very few moving parts and no engine, servicing and engine repairs should be a thing of the past.  Also it’s predicted that when they do go on sale, they may even be cheaper than the current petrol and diesel lineups. Even the bio-fabric seats are more environmentally friendly stating a 30% reduction in CO2 during production. However the most important benefit of this car has got be to the only element to be spewed out the rear of this car…water. The beauty of it all is that it continues to look, drive and feel like an ordinary car, which isn’t a bad thing.

Suddenly this is starting to sound like the perfect solution to a dwindling car career. But if you’re thinking of getting one, don’t go running for the Honda showrooms yet. Currently there are only a handful of these hydrogen innovations on lease, and they’re all in California where the only 5 hydrogen filling stations exist. Until there are more around, we wont be seeing it on our shores in the immediate future. However if the benefits are as good as they seem, then we don’t think it will be long before the world catches on, after all, can we afford not to?

Words John Insole

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