Toyota aims for $50,000 hydrogen car

[Toad]

Toyota aims for $50,000 hydrogen car

Toyota saying 2015, GM targeting 2010.

A light chill breeze passes over the Middle East.

Hey, it's a step in the right direction.

[Nilsen]

Originally posted by Toad


Hey, it's a step in the right direction.

Sure is.

[Karnak]

Having the #1 auto maker (GM) and #2 automaker (Toyota) both aiming for it has got to be a good thing.


And for some odd reason I am perfectly fine with any loss of dependence on the Middle East.  

[Toad]

It'll take a while but at long last the issue is in play and moving forward.

Breakthroughs will occur and prices will come down. Other alternatives will get further scrutiny when roadblocks occur.

All in all a good thing.

Let them eat oil soup!  

[oboe]

I thought I read somewhere BMW was working on that technology as well.

It is good news.   Can't happen soon enough.

[Toad]

BMW Hydrogen Cars

BMW plans to offer a car that runs on both petrol and hydrogen within the next four years.

Yep. That's on their site now; no date attached to that statement.

Thanks, hadn't seen that about BMW.

[Maverick]

I'm not going to hold my breath. Heck I can't belive why it's so hard to make a decent performing hybrid car when they have been making hybrid earth movers for so long.

[Sandman]

Originally posted by Maverick
I'm not going to hold my breath. Heck I can't belive why it's so hard to make a decent performing hybrid car when they have been making hybrid earth movers for so long.

I guess the difficulty is coming up with a car that's cheap enough that buyers won't recoil in horror at the thought of replacing batteries for $3000.

[Drunky]

Oddly enough, I wonder how this will eventually effect the Middle East.

If they lose oil based export revenues what will happen?

What are their other exports?

Will they be reduced to extreme third world conditions if they lose this revenue?

[Toad]

The price of oil would certainly moderate if hydrogen became the main automotive fuel.

Once their revenues decreased, they either probably get violent or finally get creative like they were back when Arabs were about the smartest folks in the world.

[Nilsen]

Takes energy to "make" hydrogen too doesnt it?

[Toad]

The BMW solution is a Clean Energy system where liquid hydrogen is produced from water using solar power, the hydrogen is dispensed from automated filling stations and it powers modified BMW production vehicles.

Obviously, we're not there yet. But we're "on the road".

[Karnak]

Originally posted by Sandman
I guess the difficulty is coming up with a car that's cheap enough that buyers won't recoil in horror at the thought of replacing batteries for $3000.

Toyota says $800 every 10 years or so.  The $3000 number is made up, so far as I know, by anti-hybrid people.

[Drunky]

Originally posted by Nilsen
Takes energy to "make" hydrogen too doesnt it?

hydrogen is the most abundant element in the universe

[Maverick]

Originally posted by Drunky
Oddly enough, I wonder how this will eventually effect the Middle East.

If they lose oil based export revenues what will happen?

What are their other exports?

Will they be reduced to extreme third world conditions if they lose this revenue?
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hydrogen is the most abundant element in the universe

Drunky,

Couple things here. The oil reserves they have will still be very important to the world economy. Transportation isn't the only use for petroluem. Oil is in all facets of manufacturing from mechanical uses (lubes) to chemical components of every day procucts. Until we can use something like the "replicators" from Sci Fi we are still going to be stuck using petroleum and the denizens of oil producing areas will still be pulling in money. Granted the flow will slow in both directions but it will still go on.

While it is true that hydrogen is the single most common substance in the known universe that does not mean it is in a form that is usable. Until the car sucks it out of the air for use in propulsion the commonality of the element is a non issue. It will have to be produced in a commercially USABLE form and that will still take energy. But you already know that.