'In America, this means certain neighbourhoods in Southern California for the nonce.'

Which neighbourhoods are best for nonces in Southern California then?

Mine's the 8yr old's one

Have they figured out how to keep the stuff from leaking out after a couple days? Of course that's still on top of the huge losses in manufacturing and transportation.

> Which neighbourhoods are best for nonces in Southern California then?

Well, obviously Santa Monica for a start.

Any electric vehicle has tens of kilowatts of power available with a bit of soldering (careful!). Ideal to drive a giant PA capable of deafening an entire suburb.

(But I'll start to believe hydrogen cars when an appreciable quantity of the hydrogen currently used in the fertiliser and chemical industries is produced electrolytically, rather than by natural gas reforming).

Alternative Fuel locations/prices at

http://www.altfuelprices.com

for

Biodiesel - CNG - E85 - Ethanol - Electric - Hydrogen - LNG - LPG

(link source http://harrold.org/links/gas.html

One of the posters asked about the number of hydrogn refueling stations.

Here is a list of hydrogen refueling statuons.

http://www.fuelcells.org/info/charts/h2fuelingstations.pdf

Here is a searchable list of hydrogen stations.

http://www.hydrogenassociation.org/general/fuelingSearch.asp

Here is a link to Honda Home Enrgy Station.

http://world.honda.com/FuelCell/HomeEnergyStation/

Yes there are usable hydrogen storage tanks that do not leak.

Please do a little reading if you are interested in modern fuel cell technology. Fuel cells are being used in cars, buses, boats, trains and stationary power generation.

http://www.fuelcells.org/

The links below provides recent fuel cell news.

http://www.fuelcells.org/news/updates.html

http://www.fuelcelltoday.com/

Many of the skeptical comments that have been posted do not take into account the recent scientific advances that been made in the use of hydrogen fuel cells. If some of the problems that people have mentioned had not been solved, we would not have Ford, GM, Honda, Toyota and others producing fuel cell vehicles.

There will be fuel cell vehicles mass produced within the next several years. If you look at the trials, the companies doing the research have proposed several methods of generating and using hydrogen. the methods that have worked have been kept.

I am a bit confused as to the interest in hydrogen technology.

We generate electricity, to electolyse water, to make hydrogen, which is used to make electricity to drive the car.

Surely battery technology must be getting near the point where filling your car with electricity directly is the better option?

No distribution of gas, no complicated fuel cell technology, no risk of explosion etc.

hasn't been mentioned for a while. There was a US lab where they managed to interstitially adsorb and store more hydrogen inside a metallic or graphite nanostructure lattice than as cryogenic liquid hydrogen. The lab blew up one day, unfortunately. Did I tell you that I met Stanley Pons, nice chap, mine's the furry arctic coat with the excess of neutrons...

I hate to rain on the parade as this is, overall, good.

But hydrogen is not a replacement for fuel, it's an energy carrier and so competes with battery powered cars. The fuel companies have a huge investment in their filling station infrastructure - it allows them to reach their consumers directly, and it's essential to them they keep this. That's why they want hydrogen, and that's why Bush is supporting it.

A plug-in car removes this relationship - you'd fill up at home, overnight. Your power would come from the grid, with a small top up generator and/or recharge stations for longer trips.

This is way, way more efficient than the electrolysis and fuel cell required for hydrogen. Batteries are easier to store, and easier to upgrade as technology improves. It removes the stranglehold Exxon, BP et al have on transportation. And it's completely future proof - electricity *is* energy. It's not going to become outdated.

Anything that distracts from this is a problem.

Frankly I don't understand why the big electricity companies aren't dropping everything they can into battery research and frantically lobbying car manufacturers to develop battery-powered cars. It would make them a fortune.

"The car itself is zero-emission"

BUT (big but) what about the emissions from the factory that made it, or indeed the power station that generated the electricity for the factory?

Isn't it less ecologically damaging to use cars that have already been made, than to burn up resources to make new ones?

Flame for those burning resources, of course

Here matey, you aren't writing for 'Nuts' magazine. Or are you actually 10 years old?