One fuel-cell factory, however, could make propulsion systems for every size and shape of vehicle.
But, of course, a fuel-cell car is an electric car, albeit with a complicated hydrogen battery.
WSJ: Fiat 500e Review: The Bosses Don't Love It, but You Will
Mr. Marchionne held up hydrogen fuel-cell propulsion as an example of faddish technology that proved impractical.
WSJ: Fiat 500e Review: The Bosses Don't Love It, but You Will
Natural gas powers the four-fuel-cell system, each cell capable of producing 200 kilowatts of electricity.
Even more important, the plasmatron could speed the long- awaited transition to hydrogen-powered fuel-cell vehicles.
In the fuel-cell stack, hydrogen goes in and electricity comes out, which then powers the car.
FORBES: Disappointed With Electric Cars, Automakers Are Making Bad Bet On Fuel Cells
The orientation also makes for a much lower center of gravity than a typical fuel-cell car.
But there are skeptics who think that hydrogen fuel-cell supporters are being wildly unrealistic.
It is powered by a hydrogen fuel-cell engine, which converts hydrogen gas into energy.
Bad news for the electric power grid is usually good news for the fuel-cell industry.
Fuel-cell technology has been around for 150 years, so why is it attracting attention now?
More reliability would have come from water-proof substations, building-centric Bloom fuel-cell power and local micro-grids.
FORBES: New York, Black Swans, Blackouts and Anti-Fragile Grids
Burns says a fuel-cell vehicle has one-tenth the number of parts of a traditional internal combustion engine.
Within a few years, nearly every big car maker plans to have fuel-cell cars on the road.
In the long-term, it could have a glittering future for it leads the world in pollution-free hydrogen fuel-cell cars.
Toyota and BMW said they would expand a technology-sharing pact to speed the development of fuel-cell vehicles.
It carries an auxiliary fuel-cell generator in the pickup bed that the Army will use to power communications equipment.
One of the things that car companies fret about is how fuel will be delivered in a fuel-cell world.
And in buses on the U.S.' West Coast, we're testing hydrogen fuel-cell engines, designed to replace today's oil-burning engines.
The advantages fuel-cell vehicles have over cars like the Leaf and Volt are shorter refueling times and greater range.
CNN: Hydrogen fuel-cell cars look to overtake electric autos
The fuel-cell on a chip is coming along fast and could well replace the rechargeable battery within a decade.
Daimler Benz (which already produces an advanced fuel-cell car) recently bought 27% of Ballard, a maker of fuel cells.
When they finally did, General Motors ditched its fleet of 100 Chevrolet Equinox fuel-cell cars after a two-year trial.
Wonderful, and we did this without resorting to all-electric cars or fuel-cell technology.
But most say it is at least ten years before fuel-cell vehicles will be for sale at an affordable price.
Nope, GM just wanted to talk about its research efforts to store hydrogen onboard fuel-cell vehicles within a solid substance.
So, a hydrogen fuel-cell car even running ... on hydrogen derived from natural gas cuts that carbon emission by 60%.
Mass production should be easy because Lilliputian's fuel-cell chip can be made using 20-year-old semiconductor manufacturing equipment prevalent throughout Asia.
Nope, GM just wanted to talk about its research efforts to store hydrogen within a solid substance onboard fuel-cell vehicles.
And it is one of his rare successes, a little fuel-cell outfit called Millennium Cell, that could provide the means.
应用推荐