Most of the major car companies have had fleets of hydrogen powered cars on the road for long term testing for years, including BMW and GM. There have been many articles written about the chassis doubling as a fuel cell (storage tank) for hydrogen gas. Hydrogen development is way past the infancy stage. I believe there are a number of hydrogen stations in California already, and the stakes will be huge for the automobile manufacturer that commits to building hydrogen powered cars and the infrastructure required to fuel them. I am sure we will see siginifcant numbers of hydrogen powered cars within the next 5-10 years.

 

I did not say anywhere that it saves the Earth at all, just that it is a cheap commuter. Your calculation is complete nonsense in regards to cost per mile. Cheapest Tahoe on Chevy web page is currently MSRP $44,895, cheapest Prius currently on $24,200. So your per mile calculation does not stand a chance. Your claim "taking production cost into account" what does that mean? Unlike Tahoes Prius are not subsidized and a big money maker for Toyota. There are plenty of Prius examples out there with many 100s of thousand of miles. Again your "hear-say" expected to last for 100,000 is another urban myth as the battery warranty alone is good for 100,000 mile.

 

The whole point with the electric car is NOT to built recharging stations or another fuel delivery infrastructure. And even if we built some it certainly would not be the car manufacturers job to do so. the same could be then claimed for hydrogen refuel stations. It would be the job of the fuel resell/delivery company.

You are already listing reasons WHY the electric car is not being pushed harder, loss of revenue for Governments and spare part manufacturers and service providers for the stupid oil changes etc etc. They forced the low fuel consumption cars down our throats by constantly increasing the cost of fuel (taxing and not drilling), subsidizing cars that do with grants etc, and now that cars like the Prius are in the top 15 selling cars in the US and we are somewhere in the realm of consuming 10billion of fuel less every year they lose the revenue from gas taxes, now they start thinking of charging per mile and adding a GPS monitor to our cars.

The electric car IS the cheapest means of transportation. yes, batteries are still an issue but they constantly improve, do not need to be toxic, do not need to be heavy and last a long time, may not need to be big as I explained in my posts before. It seems everybody hear does not read what one posts but just continues on their pre conceived notion on what it is and has to be.

The car development has taken over 100 years to be where we are now. the advances in the last 10 years have been tremendous in terms of power output and reduced fuel consumption and cleaner burn cycles.
We could do wonders in another 10 years in terms of developing electric cars and the way they can be powered. I can totally see cars that do not need batteries at all except for a starter battery to start the car and roll onto the road.

I find it interesting that you think it is easier to over come There will be challenges in developing delivery systems and dealing with potential impact collisions, but that could have been said about the origins of any previous fuel system.

then Thousand pound battery packs with all of the environmental problems associated with their disposal will not be the answer to long term development of the automobile.

Further more you continue the cycle of service, repair and lubrication of a combustion engine, which really makes little sense in terms of long term viability for cheap transportation. A typical electric engine has no service for the first 70,000+ miles.

I am not a tree hugger by no means, I simply look at the technology at hand.

 

Schwabe,
I don't necessarily disagree with anything you've stated, and battery technology is changing so rapidly that it will not be surprising to see major advances in durability, size, and weight. I am aware of many of the advantages of electric motors as we use them in our automated parking structures for many of the same reasons. There will be some limits, however. You're not going to see semi-trailer trucks carrying tens of thousands of pounds of battery packs to get cross country. It seems to me that for the forseeable future there will be some kind of fuel system other than electric, and I feel that will be hydrogen. Increasingly, stricter air quality standards will continue to eliminate diesel and gasoline based fuels going forward.

As for the fueling infrastructure being needed, I use the manufacturers being the supplier of it because the only one making the attempt right now is Tesla. It would not surprise me to see an independent company capitalize on the opportunity in the near future as did the one Israeli company that did quick battery exchanges with fleets of taxis in Japan (I believe). They have since shut down the company, but someone will pick up the slack with more and more electric cars hitting the market worldwide.

The next ten years should see enormous changes in drive systems for all vehicles including cars and trucks, trains, airplanes, and sea vessels.
Let's see what happens.