50 yrs. of Star Trek!

[Doug Ingraham]

On Thu, Sep 8, 2016 at 8:26 PM, Jerry Kemp <other at oryx.us> wrote:

>
>
> Thats why I have no personal plans for a battery/electric car at any point
> in the near future.  Batteries truly need to make a quantum leap forward
> before I would be sold on them.


BEV's are practical today.  Much safer than gasoline.  Range is adequate.



> I have never been a big fan of asian automobiles, but Japan seem to be
> leading the world with hydrogen powered vehicles as things stand right now.
> Till some big leap forward appears in batteries, or something else, I'm
> personally hitching my horse wagon behind hydrogen power.


 Every time someone with any credibility says something good about using
hydrogen as a fuel I have to remind myself that I have looked at the
numbers and it is impossible to make hydrogen a practical fuel for
automobiles.  The economics of production, transportation, storage and
conversion are insurmountable.  Why Toyota and Honda are convinced
otherwise is a total mystery.

Hydrogen has only one plus as a fuel.  It has the highest energy per unit
of mass.  It makes OK rocket fuel when compressed and chilled to a liquid.
Note that the most common rocket propellant is LOX and Kerosene, not LOX
and Liquid Hydrogen.  This is purely for economic reasons.

For cars this is a reasonable summary of the issues:

https://www.carthrottle.com/post/engineering-explained-5-reasons-why-hydrogen-cars-are-stupid/

The only issue with BEV's other than initial cost is you can't take road
trips in them (except for Tesla).  Otherwise they make ideal commuter cars
assuming you have a place to charge at home or at work.  Cost to operate is
currently 1/5 that of gasoline and when gas goes back up to its record
levels it will be 1/8th the cost.



-- 
Doug Ingraham
PDP-8 SN 1175