Wednesday/ always 10 years away?

An article in the Wall Street Journal of Tuesday about hydrogen fuel cell cars caught my eye.   The article notes that interest in this technology seem to wax and wane with government and state regulations that are issued, and with the fortunes of car companies.

Currently Toyota, Honda and Hyundai are pursuing the technology the hardest, due to their interest in meeting the California regulators’ requirements for zero emission vehicles. They depend on the California market for 10% of their total car sales.  Toyota chairman has expressed doubt that electric cars (not to be confused with hybrid vehicles, of which the Prius is one; even the Volt is a plug-in hybrid) will make it due to their limited range, high cost and long recharging times.  Of new cars on the road, these currently make up 0.5% of vehicles.

Fuel cell skeptics point out that the USA has already invested $5 billion in infrastructure for electric cars and that hydrogen fuel cell cars with require another big investment. (My note : $5 billion is a in a drop in a $15 trillion GDP economy bucket).   And what does Tesla CEO Elon Musk think of hydrogen fuel cell cars?  He says they are bulls— !

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Diagram from the WSJ that illustrates the basic technology that underpins a fuel cell car.

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