What Hydrogen-fuelled vehicles bring to the table
In the not-to-distant past, science fiction writers imagined a future where our vehicles would run on a clean-burning, powerful and silent fuel source. They also imagined we’d be flying around in vehicles that drove themselves, did our laundry, and brought us tea at the same time. While laundry and tea-making are still largely manual, car-less tasks, a clean and efficient car is very much a reality, and a new player has just hit the market.
Hyundai have rolled out the very first production hydrogen car, with Toyota hot on their heels. The new Hyundai Tucson, sporting a proton-exchange membrane hydrogen fuel cell and electric induction motor capable of making 134 HP, the Tucson is the first in what will most assuredly be a slew of hydrogen-powered cars that will soon hit the market. The car’s release is currently restricted to a specific area in California, as hydrogen refuelling infrastructure is currently non-existent in most of North American and Europe. However, we can predict that, just as with plug in electrics and hybrids, the infrastructure will be quick to develop if consumers begin adopting the technology.
What makes the concept of hydrogen-fuelled vehicles so important isn’t necessarily that they run on hydrogen, but that they continue to support a trend of fuel-source diversification. As hard as we may try to distance ourselves from it, we’re still part of nature. If we pay attention, our other co-habitants on this planet have a very important lesson for us: diversity is the key to survival. We, as humans, have a nasty habit of putting all our eggs into one basket, because carrying a single basket full of eggs is much more cost-efficient than carrying a dozen baskets with a single variety of egg in each. While there’s good reason behind both ideals, moderation is, as always, the key. As our traditional fuel sources dwindle, we need to begin looking not just at a single alternative, but a multitude of alternatives.
The hydrogen car adds another weapon in our arsenal to combat the impending doom of our oil-dependent transportation industry. The Tucson and the Mirai pull up chairs next to biodiesel, hybrid electric, and plug-in electric cars- all waiting for the human race to get smart and realize they need to change their consumption habits. Have solar panels on your roof and a very heavy foot? Grab a plug-in electric Tesla. Have a farm nearby with a digestor and some biodiesel to spare? Grab a tweaked old Volkswagen. Can’t quite kick your gasoline habit and have some extra money to spare? Grab one of the new BMW i8 hybrids. Variety allows natural selection to run it’s course without jeopardizing our ability to travel and maintain the level of technology to which we’ve become accustomed- a principle much the same will, in the near future, need to be applied in earnest to our electrical grid.
What other fantastic and revolutionary fuel sources may be joining the party soon? That’s for you, as the next generation being thrust into a rapidly changing world, to decide.