Featured Toyota’s Cheapest EV Ever Costs $15,000, Gets 10,000 Orders In 60 Minutes

A crown FCEV sounds odd. Maybe it works in Japan and its a compliance measure to keep working on it.

Moving trucks to FCEV, instead of diesel electric for example, could be really good long term. Or maybe that kind of tech replaces diesel in trains that use diesel electric drive trains.

Maybe it just doesn't have consumer applications, and it ends up being worth it for commercial ones. Who knows. I just know that I'd like to keep supporting toyota which has always treated me well with a BEV that fits my needs. But if they don't they don't, and its their loss. Unfortunately.

 

GM started THEIR hydrogen vehicle experimenting in the 1960s, what, some 60 years ago? Every 10 years a new promise that it will be ubiquitous in 10 years. LOL
1966 GM Electrovan - First Hydrogen Fuel Cell Vehicle | Hydrogen Cars Now
Problem is a hydrogen fuel cell needs either a big battery with a small fuel cell or a huge fuel cell with a little battery, because that excess electricity needs to go somewhere. Then there's hydrogen's expensive compression/storage, & extremely expensive maintenance process making the fuel way more costly then electric power via battery alone. It's even more expensive reforming hydrogen from fossil fuels, never mind if you factor in green sources of Fuel stock. Doesn't mean all hydrogen usage is a Fool's errand, just trying it for vehicles.

 

The main problem with hydrogen as a transportation fuel is in moving it around and prepping it for fast fill. Green hydrogen is nearing the point of being competitive with fossil hydrogen on production cost. That doesn't help reduce the price to move it, compress it, and chill it though, which is a big part of the price at the pump.

 

Do you remember the studies that described the affects on efficiency and energy used when the hydrogen generation vessel is inside the compression vessel?

It seems like that slightly reduced the amount of energy required to produce + compress

 

Never saw those. It could help for on site production, but those tend not to be as efficient as large, centralized facilities. For transport for those, there is R&D going in using chemical carriers. The hydrogen is made into ammonia, and then stripped off at the site it will be used. Such in the tank production likely isn't worth it.

Two thirds of the retail price of hydrogen in Ca might just be in those costs for getting it into a car's tank.

 

Ever bigger wheels, no spares, incomprehensible/clunky/distracting screen controls, reduced cabin volume/utility? More like a captive audience.

 

I was pleased with the bolts 17” wheels, and wanted them on the hycam, but only the lowest package had them.
The 19’s do ride nicely on the highway though

 

Here is a clever use of hydrogen:

• Hydrogen with oxygen releases 286 kJ of energy per mole of hydrogen burned.
  • Two moles of hydrogen is ~2 g
  • One mole of oxygen is ~32 g
  • 34 g of oxygen and hydrogen makes 572 kJ
• TNT, 1 g, releases 4.184 kJ
  • 34 g of TNT releases ~8.2 kJ
• Toyota Miri tank holds ~5.6 kg of hydrogen
  • 5.6 kg of oxygen and hydrogen would be ~330 g hydrogen
  • releases 188,760 kJ of energy or the equivalent of ~23 kg (~10.5 lbs) of TNT

Hydrogen is difficult to manage and easily stratifies, ~0.090 g/L, but there are other hydrogen rich gasses that are more easily handled:

• CH{4} - 1 g methane, 55.5 kJ, 0.717 g/L
• C{2}H{2} - 1 g acetylene, 50 kJ, 1.177 g/L (*)
  
• NH(3) - 1 g ammonia, 22.5 kJ, 0.689 g/L
• O{2} = 1.429 g/L

Filling with acetylene and oxygen would have the most uniform mixing since they have the closest density. Of course stratification is significantly reduced under a micro G environment like encased in a falling container.

IF I were ever interested in high-power, model rocketry, it would use liquid oxygen and acetylene. Assuming my carbon fiber, titanium lined engine doesn't go 'boom' or 'burn through', it should achieve significant performance, ~327 seconds.

Bob Wilson

* - has a significant auto-combustion risk.

 

and you can make it from cow poop

 

I thought we'd already covered that back when Toyota was pushing it via ridiculous ads.

.

 

i think i just read about japanese farmers doing it

 

yup:the-japanese-farm-turning-cow-manure-into-hydrogen-fuel

 

Many dairy farms just directly burn the methane from manure in generators.

 

Yes this area in japan already had a lot of methane production from dairy farming. The smell alone made this make sense.

Leveraging Local Hokkaido Resources in a Dairy-Farming Town: The Hydrogen Supply Chain Efforts of “Shikaoi Hydrogen Farm” | TSH Stories | 【公式】Team Sapporo-Hokkaido｜北海道のGX

High concentration of cows -> produce and use the biogas. Use some of the biogas directly, and clean some up to make a cleaner stream of methane.

After that you can produce hydrogen fairly easily from the methane. Japan doesn't have enough natural gas so using this bio source makes perfect sense. Converting it to methanol and modifying cars to burn that is much easier, so japan may be one of the few places to make hydrogen for vehicle fuel. Germany makes a lot more biogas from manure, but uses it in different ways than fueling vehicles with hydrogen.