Fuel cells to the power of three

Finally what everyone realised needed to happen has happened. Three of the world’s biggest car companies have announced a joint venture to develop hydrogen-powered fuel cell vehicles. The costs are simply too big for any one brand to bear them alone, so we have Daimler, Ford and Nissan in a collaboration. They say it will lead to the launch of world’s first affordable, mass market fuel cell electric vehicles as early as 2017. The key phrases there are ‘affordable’ and ‘mass market’ – the bottom line is they’re very subjective terms. I’m sure I’m not alone in thinking we’ve heard them before with reference to electric vehicles. Yes, they’re on sale from mainstream car makers. And yes, they’re within the price range of a significant chunk of the population. But they’re not exactly flying off the shelves are they? A combination of public apathy and range anxiety is putting people off. Given the lack of hydrogen infrastructive and the fact I imagine these cars are going to cost considerably more than EVs, I can see the same thing happening.