University of Alberta students will compete in the Driver’s World Championship Students from the University of Alberta are looking to reach new heights in terms of fuel efficiency and performance with their new hydrogen-powered car. The students will be traveling to England next month in order to compete in Driver’s World Championship. The event is one of the latest evolutions of the Shell Eco-Marathon, which is meant to highlight the capabilities of clean vehicles. The new event will be the first time a wide array of clean vehicle developers, the…
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Nissan Terra to be shown off at Paris Motor Show
Nissan Terra to be the first of the company’s hydrogen vehicles Nissan recently unveiled its plans to develop a hydrogen-powered vehicle. The automaker has been a powerful name in the electric vehicle front, focusing primarily on those using lithium-ion batteries. As the auto industry, as a whole, begins to embrace hydrogen fuel more completely, Nissan had begun to feel pressure to adapt or be left behind. The need to adapt had Nissan reveal its plans to develop a hydrogen-powered SUV. More information regarding this vehicle has been released by the…
Read MoreDaihatsu experiments with hydrazine as an alternative to hydrogen
Japanese automaker Daihatsu has been experimenting with hydrogen as a fuel for its domestic vehicles. The company, which is partly owned by Toyota, has been researching fuel cells as a replacement for more conventional energy systems with some degree of success. Daihatsu’s efforts have benefitted Toyota with a supply of efficient fuel cells that can be used in the larger automakers hydrogen-powered vehicles. The automaker is shifting its focus away from hydrogen and toward hydrazine, however, which it believes could be a more cost effective alternative for fuel cells. Hydrogen…
Read MoreMahindra & Mahindra announced hydrogen fuel cell research center in India
A new hydrogen fuel vehicle maybe hitting the streets as soon as 2015 Mahindra & Mahindra, one of the largest automakers in India, has announced that it is currently working of developing new hydrogen fuel cells for future models of its vehicles. The company is the latest in the auto industry to adopt hydrogen as a significant focus for future projects. Much of the industry is currently enamored with hydrogen as a fuel because fuel cells offer performance that rivals traditional gasoline engines. Though fuel cells are more expensive to manufacture…
Read MoreSwatch announces plans for new hydrogen-powered car
Hydrogen-powered cars are becoming more popular around the world, so much so that companies that do not specialize in building vehicles are looking to get in on the action. Swatch, the largest watch-maker in Switzerland, has announced that it is looking to build a new vehicle that is powered by hydrogen and oxygen. Swatch tried to build an alternative energy vehicle once before. In 1997, the company partnered with Daimler, makers of Mercedes-Benz, to build a small electric car. The project was never completed. Swatch CEO Nick Hayek notes that…
Read MoreHydrogen-powered cars may be a longshot, unless a fuel infrastructure exists
With most major automakers designing hydrogen-powered vehicles, hydrogen transportation has moved beyond the realm of possibility and has become inevitable. Though car manufacturers are touting hydrogen as the fuel of the future, they have largely been unsuccessful in lowering the cost of hydrogen fuel cells. This could be a problem for the future of hydrogen transportation because most new hydrogen-powered vehicles are expected to cost at least $100,000. Couple the cost with a nearly non-existent infrastructure and hydrogen may not be the fuel that powers future transportation. Many automakers have…
Read MoreTexas to work toward establishing itself as a key player in the manufacture of new vehicles
The auto industry has been championing hydrogen transportation aggressively for the past two years. As automakers focus on producing hydrogen-powered vehicles, they have set their sights on California and Hawaii as priority markets. Both states have working hydrogen fuel infrastructures and a base of consumers that are keenly interested in hydrogen. Texas, however, wants to establish itself as a competitor with both California and Hawaii. In Austin, state officials are working to make manufacturing cars in the state more alluring. State officials are working with the Greater Austin Chamber of…
Read MoreMercedes-Benz B-Class F-Cell now available to the U.S. market
Mercedes-Benz has been spending the better part of two years promoting hydrogen fuel. In 2010, the automaker embarked on a world tour, in which it took its B-Class F-Cell hydrogen-powered vehicle to various locations as a way to show off how viable fuel cells really are. Like most other automakers, Mercedes-Benz expected its vehicles to be released at some point in 2013, at the earliest. The company seems to be well ahead of schedule, as it has recently announced that its B-Class F-Cell is now available to the U.S. market.…
Read MorePresident Obama announces new plan to promote hydrogen-powered vehicles
Continuing his push to promote alternative energy, President Obama hosted a speech at a Daimler manufacturing factory in North Carolina. Over the past few weeks, Obama has been drawing attention to various forms of alternative energy and the government’s plans to pursue them. During his speech on Wednesday, the President focused on hydrogen and how it was being used by the global auto industry. Obama also introduced a new plan that would bring more than $1 billion in tax credits and federal grants to those purchasing hydrogen-powered vehicles. The plan…
Read MoreLexus unveils its new hydrogen-powered supercar, claims it to be more powerful than its conventional counterpart
Lexus is the latest automaker to join the hydrogen-powered transportation revolution. The company’s move to adopt hydrogen should come as no surprise because it is actually a division of the Toyota Motor Corporation, a company that recently announced plans to focus on hydrogen more aggressively. Lexus, which specializes in the manufacture of luxury vehicles, was resistant to the allure of hydrogen for fear that it would not be able to perform as reliably as gasoline. The automaker believed that fuel cells could not compete with conventional engines, but was proven…
Read MoreToyota releases more news about hydrogen power with details on their future manufacturing plans
Toyota recently announced that it had taken on hydrogen fuel as one of its primary focuses. The Japanese automaker has long been an advocate of electric transportation, showing strong support for battery batter. After showing off its latest concept of its FCV model, Toyota has announced that it is taking a very aggressive stance in regards to hydrogen-powered vehicles. The company has announced that it will be making thousands of fuel cell cars each year for the next ten years. The company believes that the world is moving toward oil-free…
Read MoreMercedes-Benz shows of hydrogen-powered invisible car in Germany
As part of its ongoing F-Cell World Tour, Mercedes-Benz spent a week in Germany showing off their new invisible car. The car is a hydrogen-powered SUV and is not actually invisible, but was made to appear so with the use of LED-embedded materials. The automaker is trying to convey the idea that their vehicle produces absolutely no harmful emission. This means that from an environmental stand point, the car is virtually invisible. People throughout Germany have responded well to the campaign thus far. Using a simple camera and material containing…
Read MoreToyota embraces hydrogen as one of its primary fuels, plans to release hydrogen-powered vehicles in 2015
Japanese automaker Toyota has long been a staunch advocate of hybrid and battery-powered vehicles. The company has remained true to its adherence to hybrids and pure electrics even while most of the auto industry adopted hydrogen with open arms. As its competitors gained acclaimed and a great deal of attention for their use of hydrogen fuel cells, Toyota was left in the dark. Now, however, the automaker has also taken up hydrogen as one of its favored fuels and plans to establish itself as a leader in the changing industry…
Read MoreColorado State University to build hydrogen-powered vehicle for EcoCAR competition in the U.S.
Fifteen universities from North America have been invited to participate in the EcoCAR competition, a Department of Energy initiative backed by several other countries and auto companies. Each of the teams representing the universities are to build new vehicles that are powered by alternative energy. Most of the teams are focused on solar and biomass energy, but one team is taking a unique and ambitious approach. The team representing Colorado State University is the only one building a hydrogen-powered vehicle for the competition. The team’s focus on hydrogen fuel mimics…
Read MoreBMW says that the future of hydrogen energy is in the hands of consumers
Though most major automakers are investing heavily into hydrogen fuel cell technology, BMW says that consumers will be the ones that decide whether hydrogen, as energy, has a future. The automaker has supported fuel cells in the past and believes that hydrogen is a viable alternative to oil, but claims that automakers won’t see success with the technology through efforts of brute force. Regardless of all the money that automakers have dumped into improving fuel cells and making hydrogen-powered cars, consumers hold the keys to the ultimate fate of the…
Read MoreU.S. Army shows off world’s first fleet of hydrogen-powered military vehicles
The United States Army has revealed the world’s first military fleet powered entirely by hydrogen fuel cells. The fleet is comprised of 16 vehicles that will begin field testing in Hawaii this year. The vehicles are part of the U.S. military’s continued experimentation with alternative energy. The Department of Defense has highlighted hydrogen as one of its top priorities for the future and this latest development shows that the agency is making good on its promises to break the country’s dependence of oil. Once the vehicles have gone through the…
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