Comments on: China To Drop Hydrogen Bomb On LA

By: Bertel Schmitt

Bertel Schmitt — Mon, 17 Nov 2008 02:36:38 +0000

@gfrog: Good catch! The Passat sold in the US and elsewhere is based on the B6 platform. which has brought VW many accolades and sales. SVW’s Passat is based on the previous B5. When VW wanted to sell the B6 to Shanghai, SVW said “bu hao” – no good, no change. They thought the B5 was good enough. And they wouldn’t change their minds nor platforms. So VW sold the B6 to their other Chinese JV, FAW-VW. The Passat nameplate is owned by SVW, so FAW-VW had to come up with a new name, “Magotan.”
Now, there are two Passats in the Chinese market. The B5-Passat-Passat, and the B6-Passat-Magotan. Brand cachet (and lower price) prevail over advanced technology: The B5 from SVW totally outsells FAW’s B6. TIC – This is China.

By: qfrog

qfrog — Sun, 16 Nov 2008 23:41:12 +0000

I’m not an expert on Chinese market VW/Audi products but if I’m not mistaken those are not the 3C Passat sold in North America at this time. I suspect those are a re-facelifted 3B Passat which we got here in 1998 and had some more of in 2002 with updated appearances. This is only relevant in the sense that it means none of that Hydrogen driveline is directly transferable to the US market as we no longer get that particular Passat or it’s sibling Audi A4 & A6.

Have a look.

http://www.csvw.com/csvw/cpjs/passat/p_photo.shtml

By: charly

charly — Sun, 16 Nov 2008 23:18:41 +0000

Building a national electric grid for changing stations is incredible cheap compared with hydrogen infrastructure as most of the cost will be in adding an electric charger at a gasstation and you’re done.

By: pf21

pf21 — Sun, 16 Nov 2008 22:10:33 +0000

The Chinese themselves know very well that electric vehicle is the near term future. That is why autobloggreen reported that in August,China started to build national electric grid for charging stations instead of fuel cell infrastructure.

By: Dimwit

Dimwit — Sun, 16 Nov 2008 20:01:07 +0000

Given the state of the world economies at present, it’s a solution looking for a problem. No one, and I mean absolutely no one, will back this tech either on the manufacturing or the infrastructure side. The money simply isn’t there.

Try by 2015, maybe. No promises.

By: Dutchchris

Dutchchris — Sun, 16 Nov 2008 19:26:51 +0000

Bertel Schmitt: “@Dutchchris: The VeeDub engineers back home think you are right on”

I know (of course only based on common sense) that VW engineers from the Heimat don’t believe in hydrogen, question is how do you know they think that way. Hydrogen is traditionally advocated by car makers that are not interested in promoting alternative drivetrain technology because they are competitive in ICE technology like BMW and Honda. To keep up a green front they promote hydrogen because they know it’s rainbow technology: you can run towards it but you’ll never get to the pot with gold. What they don’t do is tell the world that they’re only promoting hydrogen to stall change (and pocket huge amounts of subsidy money in the process). So unless you have some inside source…

By: Bertel Schmitt

Bertel Schmitt — Sun, 16 Nov 2008 18:57:31 +0000

@Dutchchris: The VeeDub engineers back home think you are right on

By: Dutchchris

Dutchchris — Sun, 16 Nov 2008 18:53:23 +0000

“SVW…wants to mass-produce the hydrogen fuel-cell Lingyu by early 2010″.

Does this mean they solved all the problems with hydrogen 20 years ahead of the pack? That would be something because they include little details like the limited lifespan of fuel-cells the extreme cost of fuel-cells, storage problems of hydrogen and the production and distribution of hydrogen.

And even if they solved all these problems there would still be the small matter of explaining to the public how a technology that wastes 65% of invested energy in it’s hydrogen cycle is actually green.