While the Biden administration continues to funnel tax dollars to EV industry lobbyists ($7.5 billion for EV charging stations, $7 billion in EV battery production subsidies and over $10 billion in related initiatives) it seems that EV industry did not win every bidding war for every parliament and congress in the world.
Germany plans to spend less than 1 billion USD in taxpayers dollars for charging stations, (and that is a 7-year plan.)
Japan, also no friend of corporate welfare is plans to spend just $100 million.
Korea is also letting science and consumers decide. They have dedicated a grand total of 3 million USD in subsidies to all aspects of electric vehicle production and charging.
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The result? The playing field is level. Relatively free of government intrusion choosing one technology over another, science and the consumer can decide which type of new technology they want, and it seems they are leaning toward hydrogen fuel cell technology.
As Ford and GM are ending the EV production targets
BMW, Toyota, Isuzu, and Hyundai are ramping up to launch fuel cell cars anywhere the free market reigns and local subsidies to their EV competitors have not made them impractical.
Anyway, despite a pile of subsidies and free charging stations Ford and GM have both recently announced they are ending their plans to produce a targeted number of EVs in the foreseeable future.
Toyota had barely dabbled in EVs preferring instead to develop hybrid vehicles and and fuel cell vehicles.
Despite a pile of subsidies being given directly to its competitors it looks like fuel cells and hybrids might win the eco-wars.
It chairman, Akio Toyoda, is looking pretty smart right now.
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to bad congress forcibly spent so much money backing the wrong horse.
Maybe they should have just let science and consumers decide.
Fuel cells are powered by hydrogen (from nat gas.)
It combines the hydrogen with oxygen in an expensive fuel cell, which currently can be made only with lots and lots of platinum. Combining the hydrogen with oxygen means exhausts only water.
It is pretty much the same as burning hydrogen (or nat gas) in an ICE, only burning it in an ICE does not require platinum. The exhaust is also water. Same deal. Oneâs cheap. Ones expensive. One requires platinum, one does not.
Iâm a fan of the second one, but either way, if Congress stays away, science and consumers will make the best decision.
Back in the day when I was looking into all of this⊠the dream was to make hydrogen from renewable sources and use it as a storage medium for power⊠the problem is that as an energy storage medium isnât very dense and it takes energy to keep it in a useful state.
Unless there is a significant breakthrough in efficiently and safely storing large quantities of hydrogen⊠the fuel cell isnât going to go anywhere.
Over a decade a go (with help from folks right here on this forum) my son & I took an ordinary motorcycle battery, attached some wires to it and dunked the ends in ordinary seawater.â It produced a few bubbles but nothing exciting.
From there we stepped it up and up and up until we had attached and entire roof-top solar panel to a selectively chosen anode and cathode, dunked those in ordinary seawater and produced several 120z bottles of hydrogen, which we then burned (one at a time) creating a nice series of mini-explosions with lots and lots of expanding gasses.
What can I say? It was fun and I was a weird dad like that.
Anyway, you are correct, the hydrogen it produced takes up a HUGE amount of space compared to liquid gasoline or whatever. In a practical application, such as replacing gasoline, it would mean bigger pipelines, bigger storage tanks etc. etcâŠ
Still, Congress should not being telling science and consumers âThis technology is right and that one is wrong,â and I am going to spend your money until you adopt the technology lobbyists have told me to choose."
The electric grid is already so substandard there are (periodically) rolling blackouts in California and Texas. And a deficient electric grid recently caused a tragic fire in Hawaii.