This is interesting. Even DA42 drivers could declare themselves savers of the planet! Of course we’ll make the H2 out of renewables.
https://interestingengineering.com/innovation/retrofit-diesel-engines-hydrogen-fuel
I think making a hydrogen burning engine is easy. Storing the stuff is the problem.
Yes, that’s a problem. Still, the idea retrofitting is interesting, if the mod is easy of course.
Talking about H2 for cars. This seems to be turning pretty quiet. I guess the economics are simply not there. Huge cost of setting up an infrastructure and energetically inefficient to produce the stuff. So Big Oil will need to find another way to dominate us 
Maybe finally really rooting for renewables and prove that BP stands for Beyond Petroleum not only as a marketing gimmick? Electric won. Next step is to find a way to produce batteries in an environmentally more responsible way, and using base materials that are available in non-shady countries.
I cannot see how anybody could have thought that H2 would ever make sense – short of nuclear fusion to split seawater, and even then you have the problem of storage.
But, for a major energy company, playing with H2 gets you way more headlines / positive media coverage than any advert campaign would
Electric hasn’t won yet 
I would not like to guess what % of present car owners cannot ever use an electric car (due to no charging facilities) but it must be way over 50%. There is still plenty of growth left but eventually they will hit a brick wall.
Peter wrote:
Electric hasn’t won yet I would not like to guess what % of present car owners cannot ever use an electric car (due to no charging facilities) but it must be way over 50%. There is still plenty of growth left but eventually they will hit a brick wall.
Please indulge me while I tell a little story about this, which I think shows the challenges well.
A house I own (and used to live in, but now rent out) is part of a large old-fashioned English country house. There are 16 such properties on the site, some large some small, but all part of the same building or collection of buildings. We all own our own freeholds, but there is some land – about five acres, including a car park, lawns, woodland etc. which we all own jointly via a company formed for the purpose. The business of our company is basically maintenance – cutting grass, tree work, etc. All the property owners, being the owners and directors of the company, meet a few times a year to take care of such business.
At the last few meetings people have kept raising the issue of electric car charging. There seems to be an idea floating around that the car park will eventually get a row of 20-30 chargers such that everyone can charge their cars. The layout is such that no-one really has their own privately-owned off-road parking, but some have easier geography than others in terms of sticking a charger on the side of their house, etc.
As is typical in the general population, knowledge of how electricity works among this group is poor. My understanding isn’t great, but probably the best of the group. It doesn’t matter how I explain it (I’m not a good teacher) but people can’t grasp that it isn’t as simple as digging a trench from the nearest supply, running a cable, and putting some chargers in. They don’t grasp that a row of 20-30 cars all charging at the same time will draw an awful lot of current, more than a domestic supply can give.
Some property owners can’t possibly charge from their own house – they are pushing for collective expenditure for chargers in the car park. Some can put chargers on the side of their houses, but would be charging their car in a space that is free for the use of all – so ill-feeling if someone else parks there. Then there’s me who doesn’t live there, isn’t interested in any collective expenditure, and will argue that the company’s business is exclusively maintenance and does not extend to the provision of electric car charging.
Fun and games….
I think it was Toyota that was pushing H2.
It solves a number of problems such as
– increasing speed of refueling
– solves problems for those living in apartments
– solves problems for remote locations away from the power grid
But it has many problem over battery power
– it is much less efficient, end to end
– requires huge new infrastructure
– ties people to big energy corporates just like petrol/diesel.
For me, H2 is more of a solution for big petroleum companies in that it keeps them in the game, than it is a solution for private car owners.
I’d certainly prefer a battery car that I charge at home and never have to interrupt my commute to go to a petrol station again (except on the occasional long journeys).
My next car will almost certainly be battery powered.
Please indulge me while I tell a little story about this
I already posted the one about my neighbour, who cannot charge at home (1000 years old village, no pavement, no drive) and a nearby public charging point is mostly unusable and costs £30 for a substantial charge (so no cheaper than a diesel VW). And can’t charge at work because there is no “work”; I think they work at home. Yet these people are in a far better position than most city inhabitants.
So there is a clear ceiling on adoption. I am sure the numbers exist, but nobody wants to talk about it while the going is good and the money is coming in thick and fast, 50k a go, with the village (where people have a drive) filling up with Teslas. The ceiling is still a long way out. Probably another 10x to go. But it explains why electric cars are aimed firmly at the wealthy bit of society.
Recently we repaired some tarmac, of which a little bit is shared with 3 other houses (which are down a separate private road). The repair cost 3k, while the share of the others came out at £250 each. We asked each of the 3 to pay the £250. The 1st one asked me “what will you do if I don’t pay?” A: “we will repair it anyway”. So he didn’t pay. The next one said it will be smashed up soon so he didn’t pay. The 3rd we never heard from. After we did it, the wife of the 2nd one apologetically paid up, thanking for a great job done. So 1 out of 3. And the amount was trivial. Each of those 3 houses is worth way over £1M. Good luck doing something more substantial
Peter wrote:
Each of those 3 houses is worth way over £1M
People don’t get to afford £1M houses by spending money!
They will be spending a helluva lot more installing a car charger
An electrician (like the gas man) is supported by a raft of regulations, which means he does not even get out of bed for less than £500. And, you would never have guessed, the charger installation grants are tied to an electrician doing the installation And, you would never have guessed, an electrician cannot (broadly speaking) do work on your house if he finds any wiring not compliant with current regulations And since this electrician has to run a cable back to the consumer unit (the “main switch”) he will earn a whole load of nice extra money ripping out all the old stuff there.
There are just 3 solutions
