Batteries are a Mistake

I was discussing this the other day at College and my friend told me that I should publicise my ideas. So here I am.

My thought is that the motoring industry in general is going down the wrong route when it comes to electric cars. I believe that batteries aren't a good idea at all. So allow me to explain.

Batteries first of all will be charged from plugs most of the time. This extra demand for electric will force bills up and will increase the demand in general, meaning power stations will have to produce more electric. And at the moment they are rather poluting. I would also anticipate the extra costs on the electric bill will cause rage. And it's not like a petrol car either, you can't go 300 miles before recharging. In fact you could only go 100 at best. With a standard charger it could take up to hour to fully charge a car. They also will cause you to drive slower to extract a reasonable range from them. So let's summarize here; they're slow, expensive, poluting, impracticle and energy inefficient.

Now that doesn't sound good and like I'm putting a downer on the whole notion of electric cars. That isn't the case. I think electric cars are a good idea but I don't think that batteries are the way to power them. I think that it would be a better use of resources developing Hydrogen Fuel Cell technology. With a fuel cell you can go a lot further for a kick off. The FCX Clarity can go 250 miles without needing to fill up. Oh yes I mean fill up. It works by letting liquid hydrogen flow into the fuel cell area itself. Here it mixes in with oxygen and it's this that generates the electricity that powers the vehicle. The electricity is then carried thorugh channels to the motor with then in turn drives the wheels. It all sounds very complicated but in fact the motor only has one moving part so it will easy to maintain and is likely to be very reliable.

I said one down side of batteries is that they don't allow you to go very fast. The FCX Clarity can do 60 in ten seconds and go on to hit 100mph. This is very good and consider this. The Fuel Cell helps save 361kg. That's a lot in non technicle terms. This helps make the FCX very efficient. Of course if you wanted to make a more powerful Fuel Cell motor then the weight saving would be even greater. Earlier I said fill up. I feel as though I should explain that the liquid hydrogen is stored in the same way petrol is. And also like petrol, you stop at a filling station, and pump the hydrogen in. No one hour charge times or anything like that, just a 20 second fill up and a possible que to pay.

The reason why I think hydrogen is the way to go is because it's just like petrol. The only difference? When the hydrogen has mixed with the oxygen it turns into water, ergo, it doesn't even get used up. You can use it again and again and again.