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"Petroleum is not a long-term solution for cars, and battery cars have real limitations," said Bill Reinert, national manager for advanced technologies at Toyota Motor Corp. "Hydrogen technology is getting much better."
Hydrogen's drawbacks
But critics say hydrogen fuel is difficult to store and, at least for now, energy inefficient. It requires more energy to produce than it provides once it's in the car's tank. Moreover, the process of making hydrogen can create greenhouse gases. And fuel cells are very expensive because they contain precious metals such as platinum and palladium.
"It's a least a couple hundred thousand dollars per vehicle," said Spencer Quong of the Union of Concerned Scientists, a nonprofit environmental group. "They have to reduce those costs."
Perhaps the largest obstacle is infrastructure. There are just 61 hydrogen fueling stations in the country, compared with 180,000 gas stations, and only 25 hydrogen stations in California, making commutes difficult. No matter how famous the driver, GM and Honda provide their cars only to people who live within a few miles of stations in Burbank, Torrance, Santa Monica and Irvine.
Luckily for actress Q'orianka Kilcher, the Santa Monica fueling station is close to home. Kilcher, who costarred with Colin Farrell in the movie "The New World," was one of three people allowed to lease Honda's first fuel-cell vehicle, the FCX. She pays $600 a month for the privilege of driving a boxy two-door hatchback emblazoned with the phrase "Honda Fuel Cell Power." She took her driver's test in it and is on the Clarity waiting list.
"I think Hollywood will definitely love it," said Kilcher, 18.
Honda says that although some of its hydrogen cars will go to celebrities, it will allocate the bulk of them -- 200 over the next three years -- to people who can't be found in the Internet Movie Database. "The last thing we'd want is for the car to be cubbyholed as something just for the rich and famous," said Stephen Ellis, Honda's manager of fuel cell marketing.
Aside from generating buzz, the automakers expect to use the loaners to gather information about the cars to refine the technology. GM's program puts most of its vehicles in the hands of regular drivers and doesn't charge for the loan. There's a waiting list of about 8,000 people.
GM has a more aggressive timeline than other carmakers. Desperate to make up the ground it lost to Japanese rivals on hybrids, the Detroit automaker said it hoped to commercialize hydrogen vehicles by 2012, far ahead of competitors. To accelerate that timeline, GM is lobbying Sacramento to mandate more fueling stations in California.
That's a big part of why GM asked William Morris to help find celebrity drivers: It hopes VIPs will evangelize about the technology and build public demand for hydrogen infrastructure.
In the realm of celebrities and cars, no one is more visible than Jay Leno. The "Tonight Show" host has driven GM's Equinox, Honda's Clarity and other hydrogen cars and wrote an article for Popular Mechanics based on 10 days in the BMW.
Leno is currently commuting in the Equinox. "The pickup is very, very good, very smooth. It doesn't make any noise," he said.
Although enthusiastic about the technology, Leno believes another fuel might offer a better solution, at least for now.
"Hydrogen is sort of sexy to people," he said. "But diesel is the most efficient fuel we have right now."
dawn.chmielewski
@latimes.com
ken.bensinger@latimes.com
Hydrogen's drawbacks
But critics say hydrogen fuel is difficult to store and, at least for now, energy inefficient. It requires more energy to produce than it provides once it's in the car's tank. Moreover, the process of making hydrogen can create greenhouse gases. And fuel cells are very expensive because they contain precious metals such as platinum and palladium.
"It's a least a couple hundred thousand dollars per vehicle," said Spencer Quong of the Union of Concerned Scientists, a nonprofit environmental group. "They have to reduce those costs."
Perhaps the largest obstacle is infrastructure. There are just 61 hydrogen fueling stations in the country, compared with 180,000 gas stations, and only 25 hydrogen stations in California, making commutes difficult. No matter how famous the driver, GM and Honda provide their cars only to people who live within a few miles of stations in Burbank, Torrance, Santa Monica and Irvine.
Luckily for actress Q'orianka Kilcher, the Santa Monica fueling station is close to home. Kilcher, who costarred with Colin Farrell in the movie "The New World," was one of three people allowed to lease Honda's first fuel-cell vehicle, the FCX. She pays $600 a month for the privilege of driving a boxy two-door hatchback emblazoned with the phrase "Honda Fuel Cell Power." She took her driver's test in it and is on the Clarity waiting list.
"I think Hollywood will definitely love it," said Kilcher, 18.
Honda says that although some of its hydrogen cars will go to celebrities, it will allocate the bulk of them -- 200 over the next three years -- to people who can't be found in the Internet Movie Database. "The last thing we'd want is for the car to be cubbyholed as something just for the rich and famous," said Stephen Ellis, Honda's manager of fuel cell marketing.
Aside from generating buzz, the automakers expect to use the loaners to gather information about the cars to refine the technology. GM's program puts most of its vehicles in the hands of regular drivers and doesn't charge for the loan. There's a waiting list of about 8,000 people.
GM has a more aggressive timeline than other carmakers. Desperate to make up the ground it lost to Japanese rivals on hybrids, the Detroit automaker said it hoped to commercialize hydrogen vehicles by 2012, far ahead of competitors. To accelerate that timeline, GM is lobbying Sacramento to mandate more fueling stations in California.
That's a big part of why GM asked William Morris to help find celebrity drivers: It hopes VIPs will evangelize about the technology and build public demand for hydrogen infrastructure.
In the realm of celebrities and cars, no one is more visible than Jay Leno. The "Tonight Show" host has driven GM's Equinox, Honda's Clarity and other hydrogen cars and wrote an article for Popular Mechanics based on 10 days in the BMW.
Leno is currently commuting in the Equinox. "The pickup is very, very good, very smooth. It doesn't make any noise," he said.
Although enthusiastic about the technology, Leno believes another fuel might offer a better solution, at least for now.
"Hydrogen is sort of sexy to people," he said. "But diesel is the most efficient fuel we have right now."
dawn.chmielewski
@latimes.com
ken.bensinger@latimes.com
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