The future's here, and it's shaping up to be a wild ride!
When you think of green cars, most of us will immediately think of electric cars: Teslas, Nissan Leafs etc. However there are currently 3 mainstream hydrogen cars (Toyota Mirai, the Hyundai ix35 FCEV, and the Honda Clarity) available, and some people think that hydrogen cars have a bright future.
Toyota are one such company, who had one of the first hydrogen cars (the Mirai) available – and they are increasing their production ten-fold. This is because they predict that hydrogen car sales will reach 30,000 per year after 2020, up from just 3,000 sales currently. This 900% increase would be even greater than that seen in electric cars in the past few years.
Hydrogen based vehicles seem to only be a recent development, with just four mainstream hydrogen cars available from the past few years. However their existence has been around since the 19th century, as this article covers. If you’re only interested in recent developments though, feel free to click “Modern developments” below! Historical Times: 1802 to … Read more
Car manufacturers often trial new car concepts, sometimes to gauge potential interest or to simply show that they are being innovative. However when it comes to hydrogen fuel cell cars, it seems like there has been a range of cars that were unveiled, discussed a lot at the time, then almost forgotten about. Whether it’s … Read more
Hydrogen fuel cell cars work quite differently to conventional internal combustion engine (ICE) vehicles, in that they are essentially an electric hybrid – but with fuel cells replacing the noisy combustion engine. But how does this affect their sound? Are they quiet like EVs, or still as noisy as ICE cars? Some background Combustion engines are known … Read more
As we see in our ‘How do hydrogen cars work?’ article, hydrogen cars (or fuel cell cars) work quite differently to electric cars. Whilst electric cars use electrical energy which has already been generated elsewhere (and stored away in the car’s the battery pack), hydrogen cars generate their own electrical energy from a hydrogen store … Read more
Hydrogen is all around us, but exactly how (and why) it ends up in a highly-pressurised form at a hydrogen fuelling station – which can be pumped into a hydrogen fuel cell vehicle’s (or FCEV’s) storage tank – is an interesting story: one which we explore here. The basic problem of ‘extracting’/isolating hydrogen Hydrogen is the … Read more
As we explored in my ‘How Hydrogen Cars Work?’ article, the traditional combustion engine in gasoline-powered cars is replaced by a fuel cell (or a group of fuel cells) which convert hydrogen into electrical power, with water as waste. Many people might also be aware that hydrogen is one of the most flammable gases around, … Read more
As I mentioned in my ‘How Exactly Do Electric Cars Work?’ article, many of us have grown up around gasoline-powered cars with an internal combustion engine, so we’re familiar with how they work. However how green cars work is sometimes seen as a mystery, especially hydrogen cars (because people will have used electric-powered devices many … Read more
As you’re no doubt aware, there’s multiple types of green car: traditional hybrids, EVs (electric cars), plug-in hybrids and hydrogen fuel cell cars. The technology (and infrastructure) powering green cars is progressing all the time, but are they a match financially for standard gasoline autos? This article will find out. Type of Car: Recap This … Read more
When looking at the (big) list of electric and hydrogen cars, you may have noticed that some of the vehicles listed (made by mainstream manufacturers) are not ones that you have seen on the dealer forecourts. Back in 2012, the CARB launched the Zero Emission Vehicles regulations. This made it mandatory for the state’s six biggest car manufacturers (those selling … Read more