Originally Posted by 10000rpmlover
I thought James May did a brilliant review of the FCX clarity, he makes it seem almost like a good buy, but... I have not seen hydrogen fueling stations anywhere in NJ, second, and please bear with me you chemist and environmentalist freaks, if Hydrogen is the most abundant thing in the universe and you can even get it with a few solar panels and tap water...
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More than a few solar panels, more like a solar garden if you want to fuel your car that way.
It takes 20 to 100 square meters with cheap panels to produce a kilogram of H2 per day, depending on the latitude (within US; for most part, 20 to 40).
Assuming you normally drive 12,000 miles a year, and the car is an efficient fuel cell hybrid, you'd need 200-250 kilos a year, somewhat less than 1 per day.
Still, such a solar garden is going to cost as much as the car itself, or more if you account for the electrolysis hardware, the compressor and the tankage.
Less space is required with more efficient solar panels, but they cost more.
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why in the living hell do I have to pay through the nose for it? if this thing was cheap enough I may consider it
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Actually hydrogen today only costs about $2.5 per kg, which is roughly equivalent to an Imp. gallon in energy capacity. So it's around as much as gas, plus-minus depending on oil and natural gas price.
The cost would be higher if it was electrolyzed rather than extracted in petrochemical processes as today.