$200B Needed For Hydrogen-Powered Cars

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America would need to invest $200 billion in new filling stations and research to speed up the introduction of hydrogen-powered cars and light trucks into the world’s largest vehicle market, the National Academies said.

The costs include about $55 billion in government funding through 2023 with the remainder coming from industry, according to a study released yesterday by the Washington-based science advisers. The maximum number of hydrogen vehicles on the roads by that time would be 2 million, the report said. About 16 million cars and light trucks are sold each year in America.

Cars, sport utility vehicles, and light trucks account for a fifth of the America’s emissions of carbon dioxide, the main greenhouse gas blamed for global warming. Using hydrogen, which contains no carbon, in fuel cells or combustion engines is considered by Daimler AG and Bayerische Motoren Werke AG as one of the ways the auto industry can cut emissions.

“Making hydrogen vehicles competitive in the automotive market will not be easy,” the researchers wrote in the study sponsored by the U.S. Energy Department. “Vehicle costs are high, and the U.S. currently lacks the infrastructure to produce and widely distribute hydrogen to consumers.”

President Bush in 2003 committed $1.2 billion in funding to support research and development of hydrogen cars, a program that expires this year. The solution to reducing dependency on oil is to develop hydrogen and biofuels simultaneously, as well as improve fuel efficiency, the National Academies said.

Daimler’s Mercedes-Benz division, the world’s second-biggest maker of luxury cars, plans to begin building fuel-cell powered B-Class models by 2010 to help lower its fleet emissions. The hydrogen-based fuel cell will produce no CO2 emissions and provide 136 horsepower, the company said last September.

The shift to hydrogen, mainly used in fuel cells, will only have an impact on CO2 reduction when vehicles powered by the fuel make up a significant portion of the market, according to the study. Hydrogen will become most effective after 2040, the National Academies said.


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