By Alleyn Harned | January 28, 2010 at 06:45 PM EST |
Many vehicle technology improvements go together and continue to advance the goal for more efficient vehicles. Fuel cell technology has the potential to move much larger vehicles than batteries can realistically move. Over the last 7 years, the fuel cell stack at Honda has become smaller and more powerful, loosing 4/5ths of its weight, and 3/4ths of its size to provide 100kw of power. Fuel Cell vehicles can have substantial range.
To the frustration of the presenters, fuel cell discussions were generally light in attendance at the conference. One good way to integrate fuel cells into the future discussions, is to consider them fuel cell Electric Vehicles, and that the fuel cell and hydrogen storage is just another type of chemical “battery.” As we move rapidly towards batteries, we should be aware that there must be technology beyond batteries, and fuel cells represent a farther technology for larger vehicles.