California: Target units for Hydrogen cars lowered
As much as the government of California wants to start immediately its green car campaign, the promising eco-friendly car technology is not cooperating according to the regulators of the state. Such delay may eventually cause California to move the 2014 deadline for manufacturers of hydrogen-powered cars to produce 25,000 units.
Since the target number of units is impossible with such delay, the California Air Resources Board arrived at a unanimous decision last week that such deadline, which was agreed upon in 2003, be downsized to just 7,500 units of zero-emission cars (ZEV) by 2014. The total number, which is 70 percent lesser than the original plan, will be produced by the six largest automobile companies in California. To date, this is the fourth revision done on the state’s clean air campaign since 1990.
With such adjustments, American automaker General Motors (GM) and Japanese car company Toyota Motors Corporation are now eased out from the burden of producing cleaner vehicles that are powered only by batteries and other environment-friendly alternatives for fuel. Environmentalists, however, are not so happy about the revision. Most of them did not expect that the number of hydrogen-powered units will be that low.
“Overall, we're disappointed,” said Spencer Quong, who is Union of Concerned Scientists’ vehicle analyst. “The board's changes resulted in a loss of about 14,000 pure ZEVs and plug-in hybrids.”
Another problem seen by the automobile manufacturers is that there are no sufficient hydrogen infrastructures that can accommodate the needs of hydrogen-powered vehicles. Battery-operated cars, on the other hand, are much feasible as the technology has vastly improved in the last half decade.
“We can build 2,500 or 25,000 hydrogen vehicles,” said GM spokesman Dave Barthmuss. “But without adequate fueling infrastructure, we're going to be extremely limited in where we can place them in California.”
Since the hydrogen cars are no longer that much of a priority, the automobile companies now focused on hybrids. At the moment, GM has its hand full with its plug-in e-car Volt. According to GM, its electric car can go for 40 miles with a fully-charged battery. The company has about two years before its slated launch. Toyota, on the other hand, is successful with its hybrid car Prius. Since the car’s debut more than a decade ago, the Prius hybrid has already sold up to 1.2 million units.
A total of 58,000 hybrid units and 7,500 zero-emissions vehicles, which run either on batteries or hydrogen fuel cells, are slated to be produced for the zero-emissions campaign. Other companies that are part of the scheme are Chrysler, Ford, Honda, and Nissan.
The number of hydrogen-powered vehicles and other ZEVs may have been reduced but the regulators of California still believe that such will still result to a much cleaner air in the state.
Source: Forbes.
Since the target number of units is impossible with such delay, the California Air Resources Board arrived at a unanimous decision last week that such deadline, which was agreed upon in 2003, be downsized to just 7,500 units of zero-emission cars (ZEV) by 2014. The total number, which is 70 percent lesser than the original plan, will be produced by the six largest automobile companies in California. To date, this is the fourth revision done on the state’s clean air campaign since 1990.With such adjustments, American automaker General Motors (GM) and Japanese car company Toyota Motors Corporation are now eased out from the burden of producing cleaner vehicles that are powered only by batteries and other environment-friendly alternatives for fuel. Environmentalists, however, are not so happy about the revision. Most of them did not expect that the number of hydrogen-powered units will be that low.
“Overall, we're disappointed,” said Spencer Quong, who is Union of Concerned Scientists’ vehicle analyst. “The board's changes resulted in a loss of about 14,000 pure ZEVs and plug-in hybrids.”
Another problem seen by the automobile manufacturers is that there are no sufficient hydrogen infrastructures that can accommodate the needs of hydrogen-powered vehicles. Battery-operated cars, on the other hand, are much feasible as the technology has vastly improved in the last half decade.
“We can build 2,500 or 25,000 hydrogen vehicles,” said GM spokesman Dave Barthmuss. “But without adequate fueling infrastructure, we're going to be extremely limited in where we can place them in California.”
Since the hydrogen cars are no longer that much of a priority, the automobile companies now focused on hybrids. At the moment, GM has its hand full with its plug-in e-car Volt. According to GM, its electric car can go for 40 miles with a fully-charged battery. The company has about two years before its slated launch. Toyota, on the other hand, is successful with its hybrid car Prius. Since the car’s debut more than a decade ago, the Prius hybrid has already sold up to 1.2 million units.
A total of 58,000 hybrid units and 7,500 zero-emissions vehicles, which run either on batteries or hydrogen fuel cells, are slated to be produced for the zero-emissions campaign. Other companies that are part of the scheme are Chrysler, Ford, Honda, and Nissan.
The number of hydrogen-powered vehicles and other ZEVs may have been reduced but the regulators of California still believe that such will still result to a much cleaner air in the state.
Source: Forbes.
