BMW and hydrogen.Follow

OK, Im now taking bets on when the oil companies will buy out BMW for making a car that could run on hydrogen.

link to this new car?

Well despite no link to the Hydrogen BMW yet it's definately something that can be done and done safely. I mean if they have made a prototype now, easily this means we won't see it for 5-6 years after the rigorous safety tests it's put through. Regarding the gas/oil companies buying this up, will never happen as long as it's a European or Japanese automotive maker, simply because they do not want any foreign control over their profit abilities. Sure they could get some ludacris amount of money to purchase this and keep it under wraps, but in the same light these cars would easily sell out much faster and be much higher revenue generators than any oil company could attempt to produce.

Thats the problem with Ford,Chevy and Chrysler auto lines, most of their funding when not out of pocket comes directly from the oil/gas companies. The only reason Ford came out with the Escape Hybrid was to show the public an American Brand can do an SUV that is gas/electric, however though it's now coming to light that it's estimated MPG rating may be incorrect.

The problem with a hydrogen car isn't the feasibility of making an engine run on it...as stated already.

It's all about making it both safe AND convenient. Compressing hydrogen into tanks to run automobiles is neither of these things.

Hell, you can run a car off a dozen different fuels and types of energy, but you have to make it very idiot resistant before it can be widely marketed. Why? Because every a$$hole in America is going to own one. And these are the same people who regularly nominate themselves for Darwin Awards.


It's bad enough that I have to be on the road with you idjits, I don't want you driving bombs. Nor do I want to be anywhere near the Raceway when some jackass tries to refill his tank for the first time and dumps the contents for a nice big fireball.

Ok, you caught me. I didn't even read it. I just skimmed a bit and nodded.

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.

NYC currently runs about 400 CNG or Clean Natural Gas buses, and has been doing so for about 3-4 years. No explosions so far. Methane is almost as explosive as hydrogen.

Flash point of Hydrogen is -423°F/-252.78CSource

Flash point of Methane is -306.40000000000003F/-188ºc Source

Absolute Zero is -459F/-273C.

The flash point of Hydrogen is just barely above Absolute Zero. For those of you who failed at school, Absolute Zero is the coldest it can ever be. As heat is simply atoms oscillating and at that temprature, atoms oscillate at the slowest rate possible and thus no heat. Also note that completely stoping oscillation is impossible.
The main difference between methane and hydrogen is that methane needs far more oxygen to burn as it is a compound and is not heated up as it is sprayed through a nozzle. Hydrogen requires far less oxygen and heats up by simply going through a nozzle(as such as a fuel injector). Therein lies the fundamental flaw in hydrogen in automobiles. Simply shaking hydrogen will cause it to heat up with even the slightest amount(on an atomic level) of oxygen will cause an explosion. If even just a few oxygen atoms exist in a hydrogen tank. Space Shuttles have met this problem many times. An oxygen leak inside a hydrogen cell is what causes many space shuttles to explode.