New Fuel Vehicles

If we have been obsessed with what might the future hold for cars, it is not without reason. For more than two decades our dreams have been fuelled by possibilities of fuel cell cars which use hydrogen to create electricity resulting in high performance and emission-free vehicles on the road. While Mercedes Benz Chairman Dr Dieter Zetsche is emphatic about the company’s seriousness in producing fuel cell cars, other big players in the industry are cautious about the prospect. If we go by Zetsche’s predictions, the mass production will start in 2010 at an extremely low level in the B Class, but by 2014-15, one could expect economically competitive fuel cell models from Mercedes with an estimated production of 100,000 cars a year.

All these and many more revelations emerged at the Geneva Motor Show, an event which is more than a gloss and glitz show of the newest cars - it tells us what the future holds. One could witness the silent technological revolution which is sweeping through the automotive industry which is geared to change many things about the way we travel in the coming years. For instance, for many decades now, hydrogen fuel cell vehicles have been considered to be the best thing that happened to cars - as it reduces if not completely eliminates emissions from our cars and trucks. Many hopeful years and after billions of dollars have been given to raising the hope further, top players in the industry like General Motors and Toyota seemed to have given up on the viability of hydrogen powered cars as they shift their focus now to hybrid and electric cars which run on lithium ion batteries. Putting a big question mark on the possibility of fuel cell cars at the 2008 Geneva Motor Show was Bob Lutz of GM, who feels that once we get lithium ion to 300 miles, the need for fuel cells naturally becomes obsolete. Considering mass production of fuel cell cars to be cost prohibitive, Lutz expressed concern that the company was no where near the cost curve on this matter. Similar concern about high cost of production was also expressed by Toyota President Katsuaki Watanabe at the Geneva Motor Show, who was also concerned about the lack of infrastructure to produce these cars.

Honda on the other hand is talking about fuel cell cars with all earnestness though there was nothing worth commenting upon regarding their infrastructure to produce such cars. Of course the development of infrastructure for producing fuel cell cars must be taken up simultaneously with the new technology, said Zetsche of Benz.

So where does this pendulum of uncertainty land us? In an article regarding the future of hydrogen cars, the Times (UK) said, “Fuel cell cars…have shifted from fiction to eagerly expected fact-and apparently back to fiction again as we have waited for science and engineering to deliver.” With such a fortune spent already on its research and lithium battery-powered hybrid and electric-drive vehicles not yet a true alternative, perhaps that dream of hydrogen fuel vehicles might still be a fact!