gbaji wrote:
Huh?! Talk about rhetoric. Car manufacturers are private businesses. Their "funding" comes from the sales of their cars. It's not like Exxon slips Ford a few million each year to keep their cars running on gasoline. Exxon might very well lobby government regarding regulations for cars, but they don't control any sort of funding for the car manufacturers themselves. Ford will make a hydrogen powered car the day it becomes economically feasable to do so.
To add:
Why Oil Companies could care less about hydrogen automobiles. Even if a company could mass-manufacture a hydrogen powered automobile that was completely safe, you still run into one fundamental flaw. This would be 'new' technology availible to the public. New technology tends to be very expensive. I assure you if these motorcars were to be made to the public, your average Joe will not be able to afford it. Simple reason being is the block of the engine would require expensive to make alloys that could withstand the intense heat that is produced while burning hydrogen. Not to mention a state of the art cooling system. Maintence on such a system would also be very complicated. Car mechanics would quite literally need to have degrees in engineering to work on these automobiles. Any maintence/parts would be extremely costly. This kind of product would be really hard to sell just based on that. Also, reguardless of how safe you actually made these automobiles, most would still not trust not only their lives, but also the lives of their children, and loved ones on a "gas tank" full of a fluid or gas that is so volatile that simply shaking it too much could cause an explosion of weapon-esque proportions.
Even if this caught on, there are so many other mediums that will always require petrolum based fuels.
Trucking Industry- If I had to guess there are at least 4-5 cars to one truck. That being said, the average driver of a car will spend anywhere from 30-90 on a tank of gas a few times out of the month. Truck drivers will spend literally hundreds of dollers multipule times in a week on gas.
Trains-This would probably be one of the last of the transportation industry that would upgrade to hydrogen, suggesting it ever did.
Airline/Air transportation- Many aircraft flown by commercial airline companies are older than pretty much any poster here. Aircraft built in the early 70's and such. That said, this would also be slow to catch on.
Military- This ties in with airline companies. The DoD will not scrap billions worth of aircraft, Ships, tanks, and GOV's just because some new technology came about. Lastly, some military technology you simply do NOT want to use hydrogen on. Imagine an aircraft carrier powered by hydrogen. Or even a smaller ship like a frigate.
Shipping-Like above. I wouldn't want to be on a rocking cargo ship full of hydrogen. Nor would I want to transport any of my goods on a huge catastrophe waiting to happen.
Oil companies might lobby against it now, but they are the prime canadites to start making an alternative fuel as well. Simply because they have the resources to do so. So the same company that was charging you $3/gallon for gasoline, will now charge you $5/gallon of liquid hydrogen. Also, everyone of your workers to make your hydrogen would quite literally be chemists and engineers. Not exactly cheap labor. Sure over time the costs would subside, but that doesn't mean the "hydrogen" companies would make their product any cheaper at the pump. Probably 1/2 of all oil company profits are generated by commerical and military. I wouldn't doubt it one bit. Hell 1/2 is probably an underestimation.
In short, I do not believe these theories that the oil companies are buying out hydrogen technology as I don't see how hydrogen technology is a threat to the oil industry. In 100 years, yeah I could see a threat, but today it isn't a threat. Why would they spend millions lobbying against something that isn't all that feasible in the next 50 years.