Posted on 10/19/2005 6:05:40 PM PDT by NickatNite2003
Mercedes-Benz showcased DaimlerChrysler’s latest technology in the F600 Hygenius, a futuristic four-seater that uses fuel cell propulsion and electric drive to return a claimed average 97 mpg.
Revealed at the Tokyo motor show, the research vehicle’s theoretical range of 250 miles per tank of hydrogen represents a 16 percent improvement over the German automaker’s previous fuel cell vehicles.
Mercedes research and development boss Thomas Weber says the F600 Hygenius advancements are “a big step toward the future production potential of fuel cells” that will appear on future cars.
(Excerpt) Read more at autoweek.com ...
Hygenius...very catchy...
Move over, Aztec. There's a new contenda...
I guess the Autoweek servers ain't prepared for a bunch of technology-curious FReepers to check them out.
I just tried to look and they've crashed.
The allah 4000 hybrid. Runs on camel poop....
Nah! No modern vehicle is as ugly (or is it 'fugly') as the Aztek. None!
My brother is at the show.
In 2000 I had the opportunity to drive DaimlerChrysler's concept fuel cell vehicles on the Mercedes test track in Stuttgart. There is good progress being made.
heinous hygenius
What the heck!..97 mpg, and enough cargo space
to haul a weeks worth of groceries, or the family
to "gammas house"...i could live with the looks
..from inside..where i can't really see them...
:o)
That's a baby blue Plymouth coupe! My father had one (not quite like that one!). They didn't come with a back seat. I used to ride standing up behind the front seat. Wow!
Something else that botherrs me about this design..
can you imaging this thing hitting a 6" or even a 4"
deep pothole, with as little amount of undercarriage
space that this vehicle has? It's looks like it's cause thousands of dollars of damage just driving down some
of the roads i've had to drive on, on occasion, and
they weren't "under construction" roads or back
country, gravel graded buggy & wagon trammeled roads.
The idea sounds good if: (1) a large, politically acceptable, supply of electricity can be found to separate the hydrogen in water from the oxygen and (2) a convenient, safe, and economical way can be found to transport and store the huge quantities of hydrogen that would be needed to fuel our transportation system.
The only real answer to item (1) is nuclear power since coal pollutes to one degree or another and using it to make electricity to produce hydrogen will only move pollutant emissions and green house gas emissions from one place to another, not eliminate or reduce them.
Item (2) is a real devil because hydrogen atoms are the smallest atoms in th world, hydrogen is harder to contain than almost any other gas, and nobody's come up with a practical way to do it on a transportation system sized basis.
They may have another problem. Every fender bender will look like the Hindenburg..(Oh, the humanity!")
You may be right about the Nuclear reactors..i hear there's
a new "Model T": design for them, not as in old, but as
in boilerplate/ all the same, parts and processes
exactly the same at each plant..up until now, they've all been custom design jobs, and transferring from one planty to another required a big orientation time, and no parts could be used from a different plant.
As for the storage problem, it may be thatr Hitachi
has got it licked. They've come up with a new compression process that ""can compress the hydrogen gas to 84 megapascals [12,000 PSI]" ...if you believe their press releases.
Biodiesel sounds good, and could be a big help on supp;ying jp,e heating oil, but i read that "someone" did
the math on converting our transportation sector over to Biodeisel, and they came to the conclusion that
we'd basically have to use *all* of our arable land,
growing the crops to convert into biodiesl..much as
i like driving...i like eating even more...
How many people will want to drive around with 12,000 PSI (chanmber pressure of a lot of shotguns) bombs filled with hydrogen in their vehicles? SCUBA tanks run at about 2,200 PSI and divers are very careful with the things because of the associated explosive risks. Just imagine trying to pump up your vehicle's hydrogen tank to 12,000 PSI.
Interesting, it has a hybrid fuel cell/battery drive train. I wonder if they accounted for the battery's state of charge before and after the economy run. Hybrid economy ratings tend to be on the optimistic side when this is not done.
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