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Off Topic / Re: The Hydrogen Highway
« Last post by Richard230 on April 08, 2024, 08:03:16 AM »The hydrogen highway is back in the news again: An long article written by Toss Woody, published by Bloomberg, titled "Navigating California's hydrogen highway with $200 and few stations" was in my newspaper today. The former long-time chief climate regulator used to drive a Toyota Mirai, but now drives a BEV Ford Mustang Mach E, which gets the same 300 mile range as her Mirai used to.
The article goes on to say: "Despite billions of dollars of investment, fuel cell cars in the U.S. are disappearing in the rearview mirror, overtaken by battery-electric models and stalled by hydrogen shortages and soaring fuel prices. Last year, drivers bought just 3,143 hydrogen cars in California - the only state that sells them - compared with 380,000 EVs."
It then goes on to say how last year Shell declined a $41 million state grant to build 50 stations in the state and that California scaled back its 200 station target to 130 stations by 2027. In February, Shell shuttered six of its seven retail hydrogen stations in the state.
A total of 66 H2 stations in California remain, but 12 have been offline for more than 30 days and others sporadically shut down due to supply shortages or equipment problems. Whereas there are currently 105,000 EV charging stations in the state (the article didn't mention how many of those are working).
Complaints about fuel prices are common. Filling up an H2 powered car can cost about $200 - the equivalent of paying $14.60 a gallon of gas.
So nothing new. Apparently the best use for hydrogen vehicles continues to be to power long-haul semi-tractor trucks.
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