Ford To Show 350-MPG Explorer Ute at LA Auto Show
11-27-06, 09:54 PM
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Ford To Show 350-MPG Explorer Ute at LA Auto Show
LOS ANGELES — Ford Motor Co. will unveil a fuel-cell Explorer this week at the Los Angeles Auto Show that it claims can travel more miles on a single hydrogen fill-up than any fuel-cell vehicle on the road.
The Explorer has the hydrogen fuel tank mounted in the center of the vehicle so the tank can be larger and deliver more miles — 350 — on a single fill-up than other fuel-cell vehicles, Ford claims. In addition, the location of the tank allows for the six-passenger seating and same cargo capacity as on today's Explorer. It is also equipped with an advanced electric all-wheel-drive system.
In the past year, the Explorer has been driven 17,000 miles at Ford's Dearborn, Michigan, test facility. Ford says the fuel-cell Explorer also set a new record for the most miles traveled in a 24-hour period in a fuel-cell vehicle — 1,556.
The fuel-cell Explorer is the first of a series of prototype vehicles to be built for the U.S. Department of Energy to determine if hydrogen propulsion is feasible. The fuel-cell Explorer is one of several vehicles with green technology that Ford will have at the show. Others will be the new 2008 Ford Escape Hybrid, the PZEV emissions compliant Ford Fusion and Ford Focus and the 2008 Ford F-Series Super Duty with Ford Clean Diesel Technology.
Ford's Explorer won't be the only vehicle at the show that runs on hydrogen. BMW will show the Hydrogen 7, a hydrogen-powered version of the 7 Series.
What this means to you: The hydrogen fuel-cell race is heating up, but so too is the race for automakers to position themselves as greener than the next guy in the environmentally sensitive Southern California market.
The Explorer has the hydrogen fuel tank mounted in the center of the vehicle so the tank can be larger and deliver more miles — 350 — on a single fill-up than other fuel-cell vehicles, Ford claims. In addition, the location of the tank allows for the six-passenger seating and same cargo capacity as on today's Explorer. It is also equipped with an advanced electric all-wheel-drive system.
In the past year, the Explorer has been driven 17,000 miles at Ford's Dearborn, Michigan, test facility. Ford says the fuel-cell Explorer also set a new record for the most miles traveled in a 24-hour period in a fuel-cell vehicle — 1,556.
The fuel-cell Explorer is the first of a series of prototype vehicles to be built for the U.S. Department of Energy to determine if hydrogen propulsion is feasible. The fuel-cell Explorer is one of several vehicles with green technology that Ford will have at the show. Others will be the new 2008 Ford Escape Hybrid, the PZEV emissions compliant Ford Fusion and Ford Focus and the 2008 Ford F-Series Super Duty with Ford Clean Diesel Technology.
Ford's Explorer won't be the only vehicle at the show that runs on hydrogen. BMW will show the Hydrogen 7, a hydrogen-powered version of the 7 Series.
What this means to you: The hydrogen fuel-cell race is heating up, but so too is the race for automakers to position themselves as greener than the next guy in the environmentally sensitive Southern California market.
11-27-06, 10:12 PM
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well just about all auto manufacturers have their version of fuel cell vehicles
GM has been working hard on their Sequel and have been converting quite a few Equinox's into fuel cell cars too
the Sequel gets about 300 miles per fill up
Honda FCX thats going to be in production in 3 years will have 300~350 too
future looks bright but just because ford is keeping up to part with other manufacturers, it doesnt mean it will still manage to stay alive
frankly im hoping Ford would die off so GM has a better chance of surviving
btw, hydrogen is less flameable and less explosive than gasoline
GM has been working hard on their Sequel and have been converting quite a few Equinox's into fuel cell cars too
the Sequel gets about 300 miles per fill up
Honda FCX thats going to be in production in 3 years will have 300~350 too
future looks bright but just because ford is keeping up to part with other manufacturers, it doesnt mean it will still manage to stay alive
frankly im hoping Ford would die off so GM has a better chance of surviving
btw, hydrogen is less flameable and less explosive than gasoline
11-28-06, 12:00 AM
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When did MPG start standing for miles per gas tank? 
I don't know enough about the tech to know if this is indeed good or not, so I won't sign up to the hype. I'd rather go electric personally.
I don't know enough about the tech to know if this is indeed good or not, so I won't sign up to the hype. I'd rather go electric personally.
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11-28-06, 12:23 PM
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ok seriously lots of misconception and lack of knowledge by the public is going to be the downfall of this new technology
hydrogen is already being produced at 50 million metric tons per year currently
these hydrogen either come as bi-product in some industrial processes, or reforming process from natural gas
right now only 3 million tons of that 50 million tons are sold over the fence
the rest is used in manufacturing of products...
the point of hydrogen is not that it uses less energy to extract currently
but once people start adapting to it, it will be produced in greater quantity and become even more economical
Honda actually estimated that it will cost about the same to run fuel cell car 1 mile as to internal combustion gasoline car to run 1 mile in 4~5 years when the infrastructure is there
and then the main goal of hydrogen fuel is to reduce green house gases
so stop thinking about our wallets for a minute and think about the planet that we are destroying
from Well to Tank, hydrogen is greener than natural gas, gasoline, diesel... etc
and once again, HYDROGEN IS LESS COMBUSTABLE AND EXPLOSIVE THAN GASOLINE!!!
Last edited by UberNoob; 11-28-06 at 12:26 PM.
11-28-06, 12:31 PM
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no offence to anyone if i may have came on strong
i just want to help get rid of any misconceptions out there because this is really a viable long-term solution for green alternative fuel
11-28-06, 03:08 PM
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infrastructure is nowhere near what is needed to support this many people. Electrolysis is very energy intensive, and that electricity could've charged a battery directly instead of large losses in breaking water into hydrogen into oxygen. Hydrogen sounds good but until some much cheaper refining method is developed burning hydrocarbons is still many times more economically viable. You cant rely on hydrogen being a byproduct of another chem process and counting on that to support demand. What if demand goes up you're not gonna increase production of that chem process to get more hydrogen byproduct; it has to be refined directly.
Burning HCs is about 50% efficient, electrolysis is about 66% efficient, where do you get this electricity from, uh oh burning hydrocarbons at 50% then having 66% efficiency thru electrolysis, and then about a 66% efficiency again using hydrogen in a fuel cell engine, too many steps and final output has less energy than burning HCs to charge a battery, but the entire process was many times more expensive
http://www.popularmechanics.com/scie...h/2690341.html
http://media.popularmechanics.com/do...uture-e852.pdf
Burning HCs is about 50% efficient, electrolysis is about 66% efficient, where do you get this electricity from, uh oh burning hydrocarbons at 50% then having 66% efficiency thru electrolysis, and then about a 66% efficiency again using hydrogen in a fuel cell engine, too many steps and final output has less energy than burning HCs to charge a battery, but the entire process was many times more expensive
http://www.popularmechanics.com/scie...h/2690341.html
http://media.popularmechanics.com/do...uture-e852.pdf
Last edited by 4TehNguyen; 11-28-06 at 03:12 PM.
11-28-06, 04:03 PM
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11-28-06, 04:47 PM
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infrastructure is nowhere near what is needed to support this many people. Electrolysis is very energy intensive, and that electricity could've charged a battery directly instead of large losses in breaking water into hydrogen into oxygen. Hydrogen sounds good but until some much cheaper refining method is developed burning hydrocarbons is still many times more economically viable. You cant rely on hydrogen being a byproduct of another chem process and counting on that to support demand. What if demand goes up you're not gonna increase production of that chem process to get more hydrogen byproduct; it has to be refined directly.
Burning HCs is about 50% efficient, electrolysis is about 66% efficient, where do you get this electricity from, uh oh burning hydrocarbons at 50% then having 66% efficiency thru electrolysis, and then about a 66% efficiency again using hydrogen in a fuel cell engine, too many steps and final output has less energy than burning HCs to charge a battery, but the entire process was many times more expensive
http://www.popularmechanics.com/scie...h/2690341.html
http://media.popularmechanics.com/do...uture-e852.pdf
Burning HCs is about 50% efficient, electrolysis is about 66% efficient, where do you get this electricity from, uh oh burning hydrocarbons at 50% then having 66% efficiency thru electrolysis, and then about a 66% efficiency again using hydrogen in a fuel cell engine, too many steps and final output has less energy than burning HCs to charge a battery, but the entire process was many times more expensive
http://www.popularmechanics.com/scie...h/2690341.html
http://media.popularmechanics.com/do...uture-e852.pdf
im not saying that hydrogen fuel cell cars would be economically sensible at this time
im saying in the future, more specifically by 2020, hydrogen will be refined more much readily like gasoline and by then, hydrogen prices should and probably will be lower than the price of gasoline for each mile of travel
11-28-06, 07:05 PM
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Hydrogen will be viable right around the time the earth goes up in flames from global warming. Or will be it a frozen berg? 
