ultraturtle
Well-known member
Didn't want to hijack another thread that was veering off topic, so I'm starting a new one here - continuing the suggestion that BMW eventually replace the ICE with a Hydrogen Fuel Cell (HFC) as a Range Extender.
Toyota is misguided in its refusal to acknowledge that battery power is the most efficient manner to power vehicles for that first bit of range and give us an 80 mile battery range / fuel cell range extender vehicle in the same manner that Nissan and Tesla are misguided their refusal to acknowledge that batteries are a horrible way to power vehicles for the miles beyond 80 or so that we may occasionally need to travel between charges.
BMW is not new to the hydrogen game, having leased about 100 primitive hydrogen ICE dual fueled 7 series to various high profile fancy boys. Horrible efficiency, and something of an embarrassment, but at least they have hydrogen fueling infrastructure at their development facilities. As we have seen with the i3, BMW tends to be technologically years ahead of its competitors, and willing to take risks, so I look forward to these brilliant folks being to first to jump on the obvious answer for sustainable transportation - a battery/fuel cell hybrid vehicle with significant range. Significant range is a moving target, with 80 being about right for 2014 (the i3 BEV is, by significant margin, the most efficient 4 wheel passenger vehicle on the planet at 124 MPGe and 81 miles range), but 160 miles being a more reasonable target for some year prior to 2026, as we can expect energy density of battery systems to double prior to that time.
Always nice to meet a fellow i3 forum member that gets it. Different power sources have their strengths and weaknesses. At today's state of technology, battery powered vehicles are efficient up to about the 80 mile range offered by most of the auto makers that have thought the problem through. Because of battery power's incredibly low mass and volume specific energy density, efficiency of battery powered EVs drops off too rapidly beyond that point for battery power to be a practical means of longer distance transportation. Enter gasoline ICE powered generators for the short term, and fuel cell for the long term to extend the range of battery powered vehicles. The advantage of Hydrogen Fuel Cell (HFC) technology is the simplicity of a fuel tank and a stack to directly output electricity, as opposed to the ridiculously heavy, voluminous, complex, inefficient and maintenance hungry mish-mash of ICE, cooling system, lubrication system, fuel system, not to mention the additional efficiency loss of a generator to convert what little energy is left into electricity.cove3 said:
Toyota is misguided in its refusal to acknowledge that battery power is the most efficient manner to power vehicles for that first bit of range and give us an 80 mile battery range / fuel cell range extender vehicle in the same manner that Nissan and Tesla are misguided their refusal to acknowledge that batteries are a horrible way to power vehicles for the miles beyond 80 or so that we may occasionally need to travel between charges.
BMW is not new to the hydrogen game, having leased about 100 primitive hydrogen ICE dual fueled 7 series to various high profile fancy boys. Horrible efficiency, and something of an embarrassment, but at least they have hydrogen fueling infrastructure at their development facilities. As we have seen with the i3, BMW tends to be technologically years ahead of its competitors, and willing to take risks, so I look forward to these brilliant folks being to first to jump on the obvious answer for sustainable transportation - a battery/fuel cell hybrid vehicle with significant range. Significant range is a moving target, with 80 being about right for 2014 (the i3 BEV is, by significant margin, the most efficient 4 wheel passenger vehicle on the planet at 124 MPGe and 81 miles range), but 160 miles being a more reasonable target for some year prior to 2026, as we can expect energy density of battery systems to double prior to that time.
