California: Hydrogen And Zero-Emission Vehicles Push

They don't need to make the infrastructure investment America would have to in order to support the cars. Having a car that can't be used in the neighboring sovereign country isn't the same level of inconvenience as not being able to use it in the neighboring state or county. The fact that those countries and Japan are building networks are reason not to do so in California at this time.

Tesla started building their supercharger network with release of the cars. For the US, they cover the major Interstate corridors, and are expanding. I can do the 600 mile trip to my parents with a Tesla S right now. Charge points will become more convenent going forward. That won't be possible until hydrogen stations are installed through 5 states. No car maker or other private entity shows an interest in building out on their own dime. So much for that FCEV advantage.

Lack of a supercharger locally doesn't prevent the use of any BEV.

 

I think Scandavia has built or planned 15 stations (Norway, Sweeden, Denmark). If these countries spend $2 million/station, they will have only spent an average of $10M/country on infrastructure. Norway is heavily subsidizing plug-ins (was bev, but recently are now helping phevs now). The big investment is really germany, if you are norweigen, the big alt-fuel buyer, you are going to pick a plug-in over a fuel cell, but there will be infrastructure for those with fuel cells to visit. Sweeden is testing a fleet of leased hyundai fcv, but I doubt it will seriously invest in many more than the 15 scandavian staions. that let people go accross the south of norway and sweeden, but not over most of the countries north, where trains, planes, or diesel vehicles are much more practicle.

Germany is the big dog here, and we will see if they actually build the planned ones, as mercedes backs away and becomes more technology neutral and vw is openly against hydrogen.
European Union Hydrogen Highway


This does look more doable than the california plan, just because of the population density and drving patterns, but odds are heavily against it. Now japan seems to be giving the incentives massive enough.
Are fuel cell cars worth 40%-plus subsidies?
I don't think either the german or american government wants to go as far as the japanese or korean government.

 

...I hate to see the AAA auto rescue truck in EU, gotta have gasoline, diesel, propane, CNG, LPG, H2, and an EV batt charger.

 

You forgot diesel

But a long of the lpg cars are dual fuel and also run on petrol. CNG doesn't exist that I've seen and I guess with BEVs you have the alternative of being trailered to the nearest charge point - of which there are many.

 

Sweden have a small and growing network of them as do Denmark and Germany. So I guess you now have to change your comment that Norwegians can only drive their hydrogen car 150 miles outside of Germany (Belgium and Holland?) or east of Sweden. There are a handful of them across the UK, mercedes cla200

 

...OK add diesel!! (Freudian slip)
CNG? I had a friend in Amsterdam think he had that and was able to travel EU.

 

Another author taking on the hydrogen lobby.

http://www.post-gazette.com/frontpage/2014/08/12/Earth-Talk-fuel-cell-cars/stories/201408120161

Fuel cell vehicles disappoint backers, critics

.

 

You should start thinking of Norway, Denmark, et cetera as European Union states. Like the U.S. states they are self-governing, but they also have to answer to a central government that establishes universal policies. Plus their citizens drive their cars freely between the EU states just as we Americans do. Norway having a hydrogen highway is equivalent to California having a hydrogen highway: That's great as long as you stay inside the EU/US member state, but what if you want to take a roadtrip somewhere else? This past weekend I drove from California to washington state. I also watched a youtube video where an EU citizen traveled from Norway to Italy & back.

I used a gasoline hybrid, and he used a Tesla electric car. Both were possible because gasoline & electricity are abundant. Not so with hydrogen. (I would have been stuck in California, and he would have been stuck in Norway.)

 

Can't they just make an inexpensive long range rechargeable electric-only car? No radiator, no starter, no gears in the transmission, no fuel tank, no fuel lines, no emissions system. Why is it taking so long to get a cheap, long range electric car?

 

The reason is still that a Li battery of that large size is very expensive (and large). We of course have the Tesla Model S example of a nominal $100k luxury car, but Tesla has among other things had to re-invent the car sales business (direct-to-consumer) to keep costs down to a mild roar, not to mention large gov't support to Tesla and buyers to reduce costs.