Compressing it is the hard part as the molecules aren’t even molecules in the traditional sense, just protons floating in an electron mist. This makes them very hard to contain. As a quick comparison, CO2 has a molecular weight of 22, LPG varies from 44 to 58 and Hydrogen is 1. For vehicles there would be two options - 1, make hydrogen in a fuel cell similar to the one you mention. This needs electricity so why bother when electric motors are more efficient anyway? 2, hydrogen fuel stations using compressed hydrogen. And then you are back to the complexity of holding and transferring compressed hydrogen and the risks of driving around with cylinder of incredibly explosive gas strapped to the car. Going into the chemistry a bit, one Mole of LPG releases around 2200KJ of energy when burned. One Mole of hydrogen releases 286,000KJ. You don’t need to understand the chemistry to see the difference between those two gases if they were released in an accident. History is littered with ideas that people said could never work and are now everyday things so it could happen, but I can’t see it personally. As far as I know none of the European makers are considering it. But looking how slow most of them have been to react to the change to EV that might not be a surprise. VW just seem to have buried their heads in the sand and recent products seem not to have kept up with the latest advances compared to the competition.
It's ugly and when Trumpy hits EU Auto makers with a hike in tariffs from 2.5% to 10%, the ugliness will get worse. BTW, 1o% only aligns US car tariffs on EU cars with EU car tariffs on US cars.
GB and EU trade few cars with USA, I thought, so why does this matter? Unless of course Mr Hysteria is in town.
Good question As I’ve done over 30,000km in 3 years it’s now worthless - everyone wants a low mileage bike which hasn’t been used (or serviced). However, if I look at the asking (and achieving) prices of 10 year old Multis here (2015), they go for about 30-40% of their original list price. @TBay thank you for the response. I only chose a 10 year period simply because our Tiguan is coming up to 10 years old. Would I get an EV ? I really don’t know, probably not. Maybe my fear is irrational. Leaving aside all the bullshit about whether EVs are better or not for the environment, my fear, which I’m struggling to get over, is that if we want to change the car in 10 years time again, we won’t be able to sell it because everyone else is thinking ‘why would I buy a car with 10 year old batteries?’. The cost to replace the battery packs will probably far exceed the car’s value, so it’s worthless or else the buyer will have to accept their range is now going to be considerably probably less than originally advertised. Im open to listening to arguments for and against though, I’m open to persuasion too.
I think you’ll find there are a lot of BMW/Audi/Mercedes/Porsche sold in America. Not too many Austin Rovers or British Leyland though
10% of VW sales are in the US, some made in EU, some in Mexico. not a big hit, but when added to all the other issues like failed EVs, falling China sales and cost issues, the outlook is poor.
Not a massive football fan tbh, more rugby and motorbikes, but that really is simple chemistry (possibly a bit over gcse but not much) and hopefully helps shows the ‘fun’ the mass use of hydrogen would bring.
A lot of the issue is the shear amount of disinformation out there, some based on old knowledge that doesn’t apply anymore and some purposefully set out to misinform. This makes it massively hard for people to make a proper informed decision on what for most people will be the second biggest purchase after their home. Companies like VW have really hedged their bets on this as well and I think that is why they are suffering as they haven’t embraced the tech in the way some newer players have. I don’t think the future of VW will massively affect Ducati, as I have said on other threads, I think the ageing demographic of bike riders is far more of a problem. I am in my early 50s and am frequently the youngest at bike meets around here. When I go to dealers it isn’t hoards of spotty teenagers smearing their noses up the windows like it was in the 80s when I was one of them. I don’t know a single kid from my daughter’s school that has a moped or bike. That could be what ultimately kills Ducati - too few buyers to justify the investment.
The EU has no interest in sparing manufacturing in Europe. They are obsessed with the Green Agenda. Europe will be turned into a Potemkin Village to show case their Green Utopia.
Excactomondo I've said before (although nobody picked up on it) that when I go to Fowlers, who sell everything from mopeds, scooters, electric shit, and then the whole range of Honda, Suzi, Kwacker, and Yammy, only the staff are under fifty, except when the motorcycle coppers are in town. I suspect sixty is the average age. Around here, everyone one under twenty drives shitboxes with massive open exhausts to share the noise. And then they drive around with the Windows down with a "music" system belting out some crap at 200dB. A very sad bunch of tossers and so motorcycling is better off with them.
Exactly why I put fun as ‘fun’. The Hindenburg was a moderate burn as well due to excess of hydrogen, limited air and pretty much zero compression. We used to demonstrate the dangers of hydrogen to new starters by mixing it with air in a balloon, placing it in a cardboard box and igniting it. The boom was spectacular and the box turned to confetti (acetylene and oxygen does similar if anyone fancies some bonfire night fun). That would have been a couple of litres uncompressed max. Imagine a car with a compressed hydrogen tank going bang in a fire on a motorway. Hydrogen is very rightly treated with a great deal of respect and care in industry as mistakes could be the last one the operator ever makes.
I know some people like that - including family members who can do that. S'pose they do need oxygen, though!!!
Or they could keep just making the same things over and over and suddenly be left behind, just like the British car and bike manufacturers were in the 1970s. and the petrol engine will be. Change has always happened and always will. The older we get the less relevant we become.
