Wayne,

Thanks a lot, another great article! Pragmatic thinking and seeing possibilities instead of problems. It only we had governmets that could push us in that direction... Here in Sweden the government are supporting natural gas power plants, and swedish power companies are buying coal power plants in former East Germany. It makes me sick.

 

I forget the "Well to Wheel" numbers that Toyota mentioned and celebrated, but it was amazing to me to see that given gasoline's potential, just 28% of it was typically used by a Prius - a Prius! The number for a convetional car was around 17%. It makes sense if you really think it through, but it is an amazingly low number.

Although getting hydrogen from a pump is dubious (and DANGEROUS), getting gas (loaded with hydrogen) is not. Hydrogen fuel cells to catalyze that gas into electricity, steam, and biproduct (basically carbon that you need to empty once a month or so into a normal wastebin) have come a long way in the past 2 or 3 years. There are several companies who can do this at a rate that would make the above 28% number for gas go up on a Prius - and as Toyota has pointed out, the Prius is ready to make use of it. The gas engine could be completely eliminated, and most of the batteries, drawing gas into the fuel cells as-needed.

So, a Prius that fills up on Hydrogen by 2010? No way. A Prius that catalyzes Hydrogen out of the gas you already put in a car? If Toyota wants to do it, and they've said they want to, all of the pieces are in place right now.