One is the electric car, the other is the fuel cell, or the hydrogen car.
In a hydrogen fuel cell car, hydrogen gets drawn through a catalytic membrane: an electron gets stripped from the hydrogen to power the car.
So, a hydrogen fuel-cell car even running ... on hydrogen derived from natural gas cuts that carbon emission by 60%.
GM--its market share dropping like a heavy molecule, its bonds near junk, its vehicles piling up in dealer lots-is making its single biggest research bet on developing a hydrogen-powered car.
Most of Toyota's energy is instead being funneled into its tried-and-true hybrids, with 21 due on the market by 2015, as well as plans to deliver the company's first hydrogen fuel cell car by the same year.
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Run a car on hydrogen and pure water drips out the tail pipe.
Also a type of electric vehicle, a fuel-cell car takes hydrogen gas and converts it into electricity, while emitting only water vapor.
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In terms of producing hydrogen to power a car, the unit can make enough gas overnight to provide fuel for 25 miles.
But there is another way to power an electric car - hydrogen.
At the Ford display, we talked to folks wandering between the big green pickup, the muscle car and the hydrogen electric hybrid.
This week it unveiled a prototype version of its 7-Series saloon car that has a hydrogen-powered engine.
This thing is just a wee bit cumbersome: 700 square feet to create enough hydrogen to run a fuel cell car 10, 000 miles a year and supply electricity for the house.
Little, a consultancy that has investigated the matter, the running costs to a driver of a fuel-cell car that gets its hydrogen from natural gas would be comparable to those of one that used clean petrol.
All-electrics are next in line while hydrogen-fueled vehicles are a few car lengths behind.
Stars are mostly hydrogen, which may someday drive your car.
But, of course, a fuel-cell car is an electric car, albeit with a complicated hydrogen battery.
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The Honda FCX Clarity uses hydrogen to generate electricity, which then powers the car.
In the fuel-cell stack, hydrogen goes in and electricity comes out, which then powers the car.
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But for any car maker, the costs of the production and transportation of hydrogen are huge.
Car batteries are filled with acid and can give off hazardous hydrogen gas if mishandled.
Oh, and did you know that you can run a standard internal combustion engined car, with a very little tweaking, on that very hydrogen?
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If hydrogen powered cars are next in the evolution of the automobile, the City Car could be the step after that.
The BMW Hydrogen 7, for example, uses 254 kWh per 100 km, but the average fossil car in Europe uses 80 kWh per 100 km.
In fact, Honda (nyse: HMC - news - people ) delivered the car to me on the back of a truck, lest one atom of precious hydrogen be wasted.
Finally, Declan looked at the BMW Hydrogen 7 - its only emission is water vapour but the technology for this type of green car is still being developed and currently, there are no models on sale.
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These are big batteries that run cleanly for as long as hydrogen is supplied, and which might power anything in or around your home notably, your car.
These, he says, are 1, 500 times better than existing sensors at detecting hydrogen. (The gas combines with the tubes, changing their electrical properties.) Hydrogen detection is used to help control certain processes in industrial food production, for tweaking fuel combustion in car engines, and in monitoring certain bacterial infections.
To have a useful range of 480km (300 miles) or so, an electric car using a fuel cell instead of a battery pack would require around 9kg (20 pounds) of hydrogen.
After spending a recent weekend tooling around suburban Detroit in a hydrogen fuel-cell-powered Honda Motor FCX , I was struck by a remarkable image: By the time my 9-year-old daughter is shopping for her first car, she may well be considering an entirely different kind of automobile--one that runs on hydrogen, not gasoline.
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