Oil giants 'drag heels' on hydrogen
- From: "lkgeo1" <lkgeo1@xxxxxxx>
- Date: 13 Mar 2007 09:52:42 -0700
Oil giants 'drag heels' on hydrogen
Philip King
March 14, 2007
DAIMLERCHRYSLER is on track to sell fuel cell cars as early as 2012
but believes the oil industry has been dragging its heels on the
problem of hydrogen infrastructure and should be forced to act.
After a decade of work the German auto giant was "more than halfway
there" with fuel cells, DaimlerChrysler vice-president of group
research and advanced engineering Herbert Kohler said at the Geneva
motor show last week, despite diverting resources into hybrid
technology recently.
He said fuel cell vehicles drive better than cars with internal
combustion engines and had other advantages, such as quiet running.
And DaimlerChrysler had rejected BMW's approach of using hydrogen to
fuel a specially equipped petrol engine as "nonsense".
With the world's largest fleet of more than 100 fuel cell buses and
vans already undergoing trials, the first hydrogen cars would begin
testing soon in cities before commercial launch within eight years,
Kohler said.
"We will start in 2012-15 with the first steps in volume for
customised fuel cell cars - with the right driving range, with the
right reliability, with the right cost position," he said. But
hydrogen infrastructure was still a challenge and governments should
require oil companies to work on delivery systems.
"If you force car-makers to sell fuel cell cars then you should force
the other stake-holders - the mineral oil industry as well - to, say,
if you're selling 100,000 tonnes of gasoline fuel then you're forced
to sell 'X' tonnes of hydrogen as well. These things have to go in
parallel."
Kohler expected take-up of fuel cell cars to be gradual, but the
positives went beyond lower emissions and after just 10-12 years of
development there were probably more to be discovered. "If you look at
that timeframe, I'm absolutely sure we will have additional advantages
with this technology which we do not know at the moment," Kohler said.
"Why shouldn't we welcome a world that is quieter than it is today?"
He rejected the approach taken by rival BMW, which re-engineers petrol
engines so that they can run on hydrogen as well. The company recently
offered the first 100 production versions of a 7 Series with this
technology, but Kohler said it did not add up because making hydrogen
was too energy intensive.
"You can only compensate that with a very effective propulsion
technology," he said, but internal combustion engines were half as
efficient as fuel cells. "Hydrogen in a combustion engine is nonsense
- because all in all, from well to wheel, it is from the carbon
dioxide side a disaster."
Kohler confirmed that DaimlerChrysler had revised its position on
hybrids after Toyota's success. Toyota had done a good job marketing
the system, although he said diesels were more fuel efficient in most
circumstances and they far outnumbered hybrids.
The next step for DaimlerChrysler was to launch hybrid buses in Europe
in the next two years and the company was also working on a diesel
hybrid system that could be deployed in an SUV.
http://www.theaustralian.news.com.au/story/0,20867,21376815-28737,00.html
.
- Follow-Ups:
- Re: Oil giants 'drag heels' on hydrogen
- From: lkgeo1
- Re: Oil giants 'drag heels' on hydrogen
- Prev by Date: Mortgage updates
- Next by Date: Mid-Day Performers Tue 03/13/07
- Previous by thread: Mortgage updates
- Next by thread: Re: Oil giants 'drag heels' on hydrogen
- Index(es):
Relevant Pages
|
