SoylentNews is people
SoylentNews
At a car factory in this city named after Toyota, the usual robots with their swinging arms are missing. Instead, workers intently fit parts into place by hand with craftsmanship-like care.
The big moment on the assembly line comes when two bulbous yellow tanks of hydrogen are rolled over and delicately fitted into each car's underside.
While much of the world is going gung-ho for electric vehicles to help get rid of auto emissions and end reliance on fossil fuels, Japan's top automaker Toyota Motor Corp. is banking on hydrogen.
Toyota sells about 10 million vehicles a year around the world. It has sold only about 4,000 Mirai fuel cell vehicles since late 2014, roughly half of them outside Japan.
Is Toyota going to build the network of hydrogen-refueling stations to serve its hydrogen-powered cars?
(Score: 2) by theluggage on Friday November 17 2017, @05:09PM (4 children)
No but the oil companies/gasoline suppliers will reluctantly step up to the mark if it looks like there's a danger of electric cars eating their lunch.
The only appeal I can see for hydrogen is that the infrastructure for delivering it is going to look reassuringly like the infrastructure for delivering gasoline - filling stations on street corners and at rest stops, with pumps, big underground tanks festooned with yellow fire safety stickers and operator's licenses; big tanker trucks delivering hydrogen made from oil or coal at big industrial complexes. The details will change considerably (and expensively) to handle hydrogen, but the business model stays the same.
If electric really takes off, charging is going to happen mostly at home, overnight, supplemented by chargers in parking lots at "destinations" and rest stops for long trips. Filling stations could become a thing of the past. Installing that infrastructure is still gonna cost money, but its likely to be a hell of a lot simpler than installing huge underground hydrogen tanks at every filling station, and can be rolled out incrementally.
The good news is that the land that those in-town filling stations are sitting on is probably worth money...
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Friday November 17 2017, @05:37PM
You mean they will step up to the mark when the government FORCES them to supply these fuels at the barrel of a gun, and they will pass on this as cost of doing business to you and me.
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Friday November 17 2017, @06:58PM (1 child)
> Filling stations could become a thing of the past.
I think just the opposite -- given the relatively long time to charge batteries, I think e-filling stations will look like old time drive-in movies. Huge areas to park many cars, with many charging points (instead of the posts that held little speakers to listen to the soundtrack). Instead of a movie screen, the entertainment will be free wi-fi, byo device.
Since land is expensive in cities, these will be in the suburbs (or integrated into city parking garages).
(Score: 2) by theluggage on Friday November 17 2017, @08:28PM
The main use for recharging stations is going to be for long trips - with most charging being done at home overnight (if street charging for driveway-less areas happens) - so they'll mainly be at "destinations" and rest stops (or motorway services in the UK - which typically have a couple of recharging bays already - outside the shop/restaurant area, not the filling station).
My point was that these will be parking lots, not existing filling stations.
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Saturday November 18 2017, @03:52AM
Ok, I'll follow the money.
It's highly unlikely the oil companies will "step up" as you maintain.
Since hydrogen is such a small molecule, it requires components like stainless steel for everything the hydrogen comes into contact with.
Therefore, the installation of Hydrogen filling stations will require expensive infrastructure and investments that few companies will risk, even to supply several thousand hydrogen vehicles on the road throughout the country.
At best, it will become a regional roll out, and those poor consumers who own hydrogen powered cars, will be stuck unable to travel long distances without proper pre planning to find obscure hydrogen filling stations.
I promoted hydrogen as as fuel storage medium for years, but I eventually saw that it's not the way to go, for many quite valid reasons.