Ford, Dailmer AG and Nissan Motors Develope All-Electric Vehicles powered by Hydrogen Fuel Cell Range Extender Technology - Fast and the Furious 6 Open Architecture Ender's Game for Hydrogen

“Working together will significantly help speed this technology to market at a more affordable cost to our customers. We will all benefit from this relationship, as the resulting solution will be better than any one company working alone”

Ford Group VP (Vice President) for Global Product Development, Raj Nairin in a statement issued to the Associated Press on Monday, January 28, 2013

It would appear that the Automakers have caught the Open Architecture Bug when it comes down to Hydrogen Fuel Cell Design with vehicles ready for the showroom in next four (4) years as reported in “DAIMLER, FORD, AND RENAULT/NISSAN TEAM-UP TO TAKE ON HYDROGEN/ELECTRIC HYBRIDS FOR 2017”, published January 29, 2013 By Nick Jaynes, DigitalTrends.

This as Dearborn, Michigan based Ford Motors, Daimler AG of Germany, makers of the Mercedez-Benz,  and Japan based Nissan have decided to share their nearly sixty (60) years of expertise in Hydrogen Fuel Engine Design to develop a common Design for a Hydrogen Fuel Cell by 2017 as reported in “Ford, Daimler and Nissan working on Hydrogen car”, published Monday, January 28, 2013 | 12:52 PM, The Jamaica Observer.

The reasons are quite obvious and compelling.

Albeit All-Electric Vehicles Range and design are improving, the Power Source, mainly Li-Ion (Lithium Ion) batteries remain a source of worry for motorists. Motorists still experience Range Anxiety similar to your smartphone running out of charge; once you battery’s dead, you can’t move.

Also recharging from dead to full charge at best with a 500V Fast Charger can only be safely done in 30 minutes. Not to mention the lack of Electronic Charging Station infrastructure in the first place, a kind of classic chicken-or-the-egg kinda problem. This is not even considering the cost of replacement of these Li-Ion Batteries and their lifespan after multiple recharge cycles.

Also, albeit a recent study by the Institute for Automotive Research (IFA) at the Nürtingen–Geislingen University has shown that All-Electric Vehicles are cheaper to maintain than Gasoline Powered Vehicles as noted in in “Study shows EV maintenance is cheaper by a third when compared to regular cars”, published DECEMBER 7, 2012, BY JACOB JOSEPH, DigitalTrends, a perception exists of expensive and hard-to-source parts in the event of a repair.

So despite the heavy investment in All-Electric Vehicle by the likes of Nissan in their 2013 Nissan Leaf to improves its range and charge as noted in my blog article entitled “Nissan Debuts the 2013 Nissan Leaf - 228 km range good for commute to The House at the End of the Street”, all three (3) automakers know the above are issues that still concern motorists.

Reasons along with the high costs of All-Electric Vehicles and the lackluster response to All-Electric Vehicles to develop a new power source for Li-Ion Batteries and common parts in a bid to bring down costs of All-Electric Vehicles to that of ordinary gas-guzzlers! Hence the Search for Alternative sources of Power for All-Electric Vehicles and a common design to ease fears about Range Anxiety and Spare Parts.

These consumer concerns necessitate the need for common spare parts for All-Electric Vehicles being made by these Automakers as noted in “Ford, Mercedes-Benz, and Nissan target 2017 for fuel cell vehicles”, published January 28, 2013 4:18 PM PST by Wayne Cunningham, CNET News.

The key seems to be not in improving the storage capacity of Li-Ion batteries, but in their power Source.

Already, GM (General Motors) 2011 Chevy Volt led the way with its unique Range Extender Technology as described in my Geezam blog article entitled “The American Race towards Alternative Energy” that utilizes a built in Gasoline Powered Generator to Recharge the Batteries and thereby extend the Range of the All-Electric Vehicle.

A more appropriate Vehicle Design for American and Jamaican with Range Anxiety as it relates to All-Electric Vehicles as noted in my blog article entitled “Alternative Energy and Range Extender Technology - Jamaica to Rhaatid”. Thus a solution presents itself to Automakers still committed to the All-Electric Vehicle Concept; Design a means by which they can recharge themselves while driving without the need to be tethered to a Recharging Station for thirty (30) minutes.

Enter Hydrogen Fuel Cells, which automaker Volvo has already being doing advance work, mainly relating to catalytic cracking of Gasoline to Make Hydrogen Gas to power the Hydrogen Fuel Cell, generating electricity as described in my blog article entitled “Alternative Energy and Volvo - Tomorrow Never Dies for the Hydrogen-Electron Economy” and “Lithium-Ion vs Hydrogen Fuel Cell - The Living Daylights”.

An obvious yet elegant solution is to use Seawater as the Fuel, with Solar Powered Electrolysis being used to Produce Hydrogen Gas in situ instead of devising expensive Storage solutions for this very flammable, leak-prone and explosive gas that burns with an invisible flame. 

Thus it’s being suggested in my blog that the Automaker may do well to team up with the Jamaican Researchers at UWI (University of the West Indies), UTECH (University of Technology) and the ministry of Science, Technology, Energy and Mining.

This research team, funded by the EU (European Union), is working to developed Hydrogen as a viable replacement for LPG (Liquid Petroleum Gas) cooking cylinders, with Seawater used to generate Hydrogen Gas as an option as explained in my blog article entitled “UTECH partners with GOJ and UWI to develope Hydrogen Cooking Gas Cylinders - EU Funded 3 Year Project is Chasing Mavericks to push Jamaica into the Hydrogen-Electron Economy”.

With improved funding and sharing of their Hydrogen Technology, the Automakers goal can be realized. Ditto too for the UWI-UTECH-GOJ partnership to replace imported LPG with Hydrogen, which would also benefit from such collaboration. Ultimately everyone would benefit in this Fast and the Furious 6 (2013) Open Architecture Ender's Game (2013) for Hydrogen.