Fuel Cell Vehicles

I. INTRODUCTION

A new future in automotive transportation is steadily approaching. This future will be one in which light and heavy vehicles are powered by new clean and efficient energy sources. While many technologies will contribute to this future, many see the fuel cell as the leading long-term candidate for becoming the power source for petroleum and emissions-free, mass-produced light vehicles, as well as some types of heavy vehicles. This assessment discusses the status of global efforts to address the technical and economic barriers(including cost and infrastructure) to the widespread adoption of fuel cell vehicles and thereby usher in a new transportation future. While the successful resolution of remaining technical and economic barriers to fuel cell vehicles is not a foregone conclusion, success is closer than ever before.

The Promise

At this point in time, fuel cell vehicles promise the best opportunity to achieve a net-zero carbon energy and emissions future for the automotive mass market. They would deliver high-energy efficiency possibly up to twice that of gasoline-powered internal combustion engines (ICEs), since hydrogen possesses the highest energy content per unit weight of any known fuel (120.7 kJ/g). Fuel cell vehicles could eventually be powered by hydrogen derived from distributed domestic sources of energy, such as wind, solar, biomass, and hydro. They would offer near-zero levels of air pollution and greenhouse gas emissions.

They could be made small enough to fit compactly in vehicles, yet strong enough to produce power equivalent to that of gasoline-powered ICE vehicles. And, unlike pure electric vehicles, they could provide a sufficient driving range without needing downtime for recharging. Most important, the use of fuel cells for an application as complex and demanding as vehicles would portend a major paradigm shift in global energy consumption and supply. The potential would exist to create new industries and allow people throughout the global community to enjoy the benefits of access to an efficient, cost-effective, and reliable energy source. Thus, the new hydrogen automotive future could have a global economic impact far beyond the automotive sector itself, both in terms of the automotive

industrys effect on overall economic world growth and as the driver of an enabling technology applicable to many sectors and industries.

The first fuel cell vehicles became available for commercial lease in late 2002 in Japan and the United States. It is highly unlikely, however, that fuel cell vehicles will be truly affordable, durable, and available to average consumers until the 20102020 time frame. Significant technical and infrastructure barriers must be overcome. And it will be many more years after those barriers fall before the worlds automotive fleets can turn over and accommodate substantial numbers of fuel cell vehicles. In the interim and in parallel, companies and governments are investing in other technologies for highly efficient, clean vehicles, including clean diesels and electric hybrids. They are doing so to maintain medium-term market share and profits, lower harmful emissions, and decrease petroleum use in the transportation sector. Many of these technologies will also be applicable to future fuel cell vehicles.

The major automotive manufacturers have been pouring resources into their own fuel cell laboratories since the early 1990s. In 2000, DaimlerChrysler invested approximately $900 million in hybrid and fuel cell research and development (R&D) and, in June 2002, successfully drove its latest fuel cell-powered vehicle, the NECAR 5, across the United States. Every major vehicle company as joined forces in some manner with other companies and with governments to push the technology further and faster.

The larger vehicle companies have all displayed fuel cell concept cars. Toyota and Honda have announced plans for limited, controlled leases of first-generation fuel cell vehicles using hydrogen in high-pressure insulated tanks in late 2002. They will be followed closely by other companies planning initial sales within the 20032004 time frame. Companies are busy preparing for more demonstrations of test vehicles at the California Fuel Cell Partnership, with more demonstrations being planned throughout the worldincluding in Europe, China, and Australia. Other companies are planning to use fuel cells first on city buses that can use a central refueling facility and have less stringent technical and size requirements. DaimlerChrysler, for example, delivered its first city buses with fuel cells in 2002. Still other vehicle companies and suppliers have announced plans to build fuel cell stationary power sources, which will give them experience in fuel cell technology, earlier return on investment, and manufacturing expertise in a product area with less stringent operational requirements than automobiles.