Before buying a hydrogen powered car you need to know the hydrogen car pros and cons. Knowing the pluses and minuses associated with hydrogen fuel for cars is vital before you spend your money. Alternative fuel vehicles are becoming more popular, and the hydrogen fuel cell is being touted as one of the ways forward. Is it worth spending the money to join the green revolution for vehicles?
At present it’s not easy to find a hydrogen powered car. They’re only available in Southern California, and there’s a waiting list of people eager to have one. Currently you can only have one on a lease, paying $600 a month, although this does include maintenance.
If you live in the area you can join the waiting list, but be aware that the production is limited. For other parts of the country it’s impossible to have a hydrogen powered car. Of the hydrogen car pros and cons this is perhaps the biggest one.
Hydrogen cars need special fuel. That means a special filling station. There are currently very few of these, and they’re all located around Los Angeles. The result of this is that it’s impossible to travel far in case the vehicle runs out of fuel.
Although the cost of the fuel is lower than gasoline, the limited availability and manufacturing costs means it’s not especially cheap either.
Hydrogen powered vehicles have absolutely no emissions. All that emerges from the exhaust is water. They’re as green as it’s possible to be, which is a huge plus. As the technology develops and mass production begins, as people begin adopting the cars, the overall emissions will go down. By driving a hydrogen powered vehicle you’re becoming part of the solution to global warming, not the problem.
Although leasing a hydrogen powered car is only $600 a month, that’s still a great deal of money to most people. It’s certainly not for anyone on a budget. For the moment at least, this kind of going green is a luxury.
It’s quite possible that the cost will come down as the vehicles become more common. There’s very little that can go wrong in the engine of a hydrogen vehicle but there are hardly any places that can repair these vehicles. All repairs will be very costly as few mechanics have the requisite skills.
At present hydrogen vehicles have a very limited range. They can go about 240 miles before they need to have their tanks refilled with hydrogen. That means they’re good for city driving but not for any long trips.
Coupled with the small number of hydrogen filling stations it leaves the owners of the vehicles extremely limited. In some ways this is the factor that will keep people away from the vehicles. Until there’s a network of filling stations across the country people are going to be restricted in the way they drive hydrogen vehicles and this will keep them wary of buying the cars.
