Cars that run on electricity instead of fossil fuels are becoming increasingly common and may eventually replace their internal combustion counterparts entirely. However, it is not at all certain what the source of electricity in cars will be.
Electric cars like the Tesla S and the Nissan Leaf are powered by large battery packs that have to be recharged after some number of miles. Tesla has made that less problematic with its growing network of supercharger stations that provide 150 miles of driving range in less than an hour.
However, many major automakers are betting on hydrogen-fuel-cell cars as the real future of electrified vehicles. These cars have a fuel cell in them that takes hydrogen from an on-board tank, combines it with oxygen from the air, and produces the electricity that powers the car.
The overall experience is much more like what we are used to. You fill up the tank with fuel in a couple of minutes and off you can go for a few hundred miles.
Several automakers already have fleets of fuel cell cars running in places like California. Both Toyota and Honda plan to introduce commercial models next year. Right now, these cars are pretty expensive, but the automakers are making them available for lease under fairly reasonable terms.
Of course, the key to the spread of fuel cell cars is the widespread, convenient, and economical availability of hydrogen. Whether that can happen will determine what kind of electric cars we will ultimately drive.
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Photo, posted July 19, 2012, courtesy of the Official U.S. Navy Page via Flickr.
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Earth Wise is a production of WAMC Northeast Public Radio.