Smart ED vs Smart ICE

malcolm · 04-19-2008, 05:30 AM

Test from Fifth Gear:

YouTube Video

Cobos · 04-19-2008, 08:39 AM

Fifth gear has in my relatively limited experience (around 5-10 shows of each) seemed a lot more common sense and a lot less pure show off than Top Gear. And this comparison does show they can like a EV, but why oh why do they keep on mentioning H2. Are they really that crappy with the basic physics? Has someone compared a newer REEV with a fuel cell car and compared the CO2 usage? I'm pretty sure the Volt will beat the FCX everytime, using todays H2 sources and modern coal plants.

Sorry about the rant.... it just gets to me..

Cobos

BBHighway · 04-19-2008, 09:07 AM

It's not really fair calling EVs "Betamax". Betamax was a specific format that couldn't be changed, no ability to improve and evolve. With EV's, the critical part is the battery pack, and that is entirely open ended. As new and improved battery formulations come along, there is nothing preventing EVs from using them, so that is a completely different situation than what was Betamax. The limits of battery capacity set by physics and chemistry are something like 100 times where we are now, so a 2x, 4x, or more increase is not at all unreasonable to expect in the future. How long that will take depends mostly on how much R&D effort we decide to put into it.

And to me, hydrogen is not like HD DVD, it's more like when I was a kid and we all assumed that the future would be full of flying cars or nuclear powered cars. Sure, it is actually possible to make a nuclear powered car, but would it ever be practical?

stopcrazypp · 04-19-2008, 11:33 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by BBHighway

And to me, hydrogen is not like HD DVD, it's more like when I was a kid and we all assumed that the future would be full of flying cars or nuclear powered cars. Sure, it is actually possible to make a nuclear powered car, but would it ever be practical?

Yep, it's this exact same thinking that explains why people question practicality of hydrogen a lot less. They view it as some cool technology from the future and they tend to not think about whether it will actually be practical.

BBHighway · 04-19-2008, 03:13 PM

As long as it is 10 to 20 years out, nobody worries too much if it's really practical. I suspect that widespread hydrogen usage will always be 10 to 20 years away.

That makes it valuable as a stalling tactic. Why spend lots of money developing BEVs now, when were just 10 years of so from having hydrogen? I recall that was pretty much the reasoning behind the CARB decision that was the nadir of WKTEC.