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To clear up a persistent sticky point:
Fuel-cell car is NOT an Electric car
Like the proposed GM VOLT, the fuel-cell car is a serial hybrid.
Every fuel cell car uses technical-grade (carbon-free and expensive)
Hydrogen gas and a fuel-cell-stack generator to make the electric for a battery and motor. The battery has to be
large enough to run the fuel-cell-hoax a certain distance on its own, and large enough to store electric from regenerative
braking, because the fuel cell can't store electric power, it generates electric.
In the case of the fuel-cell-hoax, the fuel cell plays the part of the on-board generator that powers the EV when
the battery is depleted.
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All Hybrid cars come in two varieties, and two sub-variations.
All hybrids carry batteries and motors, and all have regenerative braking, which turns the motor into a generator/electric
brake, saving-wear-and tear on brake linings:
- Serial Hybrid:
All motive (traction) power is provided by the electric
motor, just as with all Fuel Cell cars and all Electric cars. Electric horsepower (hp) is more powerful than Internal
Combustion Engine ("ICE") hp, because it delivers maximum torque at zero RPM, when a car needs it most,
while the ICE delivers maximum power range at a constant RPM not suitable for stopping and starting from a standing
stop. It's a hybrid because it carries an on-board gas engine-generator which is connected electronically to the
batteries, controller and motor. There is no gearing, no clutch and no mechanical linkage at all. While not as
simple as a pure battery electric car, the serial hybrid
can always be converted to a pure EV just by disconnecting the wires from the generator to the batteries. There
is currently no production serial hybrid.
- Parallel Hybrids:
Called "parallel" because the electric motor is a partner with the ICE, the motor can be used to augment
the ICE in some very nice ways. Because much of the torque load can be taken over by the electric motor, the ICE
can be the much cleaner Atkinson Cycle (Ford Escape) and can use the Continuously Variable Transmission (CVT),
which is not durable enough in a pure ICE. Parallel hybrids come in strong and weak varieties:
a. Strong Parallel: Like the Toyota Prius or Ford Escape, the strong hybrid can run on the electric motor
alone until the battery needs to be recharged. The motor provides torque boost, and there can be several motors
(the strong parallel hybrid Lexus has a third, power-boost rear wheel motor) that can boost performance and economy
in many ways.
b. Weak Parallel: Like the Honda Insight, the weak hybrid cannot run on battery and motor alone. The engine
needs to run when the car is in motion, but the engine turns off when the car is stopped. The motor is used to
start the car and boost torque as well as enable the CVT. The ICE can be smaller than otherwise would be needed
(without the hybrid motor). Only a small battery is required.
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Fuel cell vehicles are serial hybrids, or what GM's
Bob Lutz calls Extended Range Electric Vehicles ("EREV"), using the fuel cell to generate electric analogously
to a gas or diesel genset when the battery is depleted.
But the very name EREV Lutz has chosen is misleading: it's extended range, but it's not an EV when the battery
is depleted and it needs to fire up the on-board electric generator, whether it's a fuel cell, diesel or gas engine-generator
"genset".
It's misleading to claim that "every fuel cell car is an electric car" just because it has electric traction
power, the motor that drives the wheels.
It's true only to say that every fuel cell car drives on its electric motor.
The conversion ration of energy from the battery to the wheels is much higher in an EV, because it's all chemical
and because it's well-known, perhaps 80% to 90% of the energy is utilized to propel the vehicle.
This is an important point because fuel cells and the "Hydrogen future" are presented as a panacea that
will solve all our problems from warts to indigestion, making wimpy EVs into the Charles Atlas of supercars.
High-efficiency is a big part of the superiority of electric transit, which is also that we don't use petroleum
in the car and we can generate the energy needed for the daily drive via our own solar or wind-powered homes.
There is no translation of energy from one medium to another once it's in the battery other than when it goes to
moving the rotor of the motor (and thus the wheels).
We could do fuel cell cars if we wanted to build thousands of new nuclear power plants to generate the Hydrogen
for far fewer cars than we have now.
Or if we wanted to use natural gas as a feedstock to make Hydrogen. But the conversion to hydrogen would lose energy,
more energy than we get out of the final result.
It's an ironic fact that the energy it currently takes to extract and refine one barrel of petroleum, if used in
an EV or CNG car, would take the car the same distance as the rest of the barrel takes an Internal Combustion ("IC")
car, at our fleet average of 20 mpg.
If it takes more natural gas to refine tar sands into oil than we get out in terms of energy, it makes more sense
to use the natural gas directly to either produce electric for plug-in cars, or else to use the natural gas to
run fleets of CNG cars, trucks and buses.
Personal autos are very convenient.
The bigger problem is that if we're going to continue
our current conveniences, and if others around the world multiply the use of personal cars, it can't be done with
oil or with fuel cells.
Biofuels grown each year would not suffice unless we cut back the daily drive from an average of 30 to 3 miles.
If we only allowed 10,000,000 cars in California, let's say by limiting the number of registrations from number
0 up to 10000000, we need not worry about energy or oil. That would cut consumption by perhaps 50%, down to 20,000,000
gallons per day. But it's unlikely that enough people would give up their cars voluntarily.
Even if some do conserve, others will not. While a few might give up their fuelish ways, other, more profligate,
less caring will step right up to burn more cheap gas and waste what the frugal have saved. Just as the taunt,
"...your puny prius frees up diesel
to power my sand-buggy at the River!".
The work-a-round is to have the same convenience, but do it more efficiently, and stop waste by everyone.
But California could not even get 12 cents added to the tax on gasoline, and now there's a movement to reduce gasoline
taxes on gas-guzzlers by charging vehicles by the mile, so that a prius pays the same as an Escargo or Blimpmobile.
The only way everyone can have a car
is EV-PV.
The reality is that every human on the planet could drive
an EV over 100 miles per day, and they could all be fueled by solar PV power generators over the car port where
the car is parked or on the rooftops of dwellings. It doesn't take up cropland, doesn't take a lot of space, and
doesn't cause a lot of pollution. The EV lasts for decades, the batteries recycle, none of the metal components
are lost.
For long-distance travel, electric trains are most efficient, even planes beat IC cars. If you want to tour the
USA, take an RV or motorcycle.
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