Nissan Promises Big Car EVs For The Wide Open Roads
America, land of wide open roads and big cars, listen up: On the sidelines of Nissan showing its new day care center at its Yokohama headquarters to reporters, Nissan’s COO Toshiyuki Shiga made a comment that should resonate well with American customers:
“Fuel-cell technology is suited for use in large vehicles and long-distance driving,” Shiga said, in answer to a reporter who asked whether Nissan’s new collaboration with Ford and Daimler on fuel cell technology would eat into Leaf sales. EVs are small vehicles for short range driving, and the laws of physics will try their level worst to keep it that way.
Hydrogen-powered vehicles, which are, for all practical purposes, EVs with a battery that is charged with hydrogen, already can last longer on a single tank than most gasoline-powered cars. They also can be filled-up just as fast as a gasoline-powered car. Limited range and charge times of many hours will keep BEVs in the small niche they are.
I went to Yokohama to take pictures of Shiga with cute Japanese babies on both arms. There were none, the kindergarten won’t open for business until April. It shall be ignored by TTAC until Nissan offers me a photo op for cute baby pictures.
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Strip a Nissan Leaf down for weight savings then tow a small gas powered electric generator trailer behind it for those in between fast charger wide open spaces... Problem solved.
Range from US fueleconomy.gov Range Tesla Model S-85 range 265 miles Honda FCX Clarity range 240 miles Tesla Model S-60 range 208 miles Mercedes-Benz F-Cell range 190 miles Today’s Tesla battery electric cars are faster, larger and generally longer range than their fuel cell counterparts. Even ignoring the profound power advantage of batteries vs fuel cell, until hydrogen tanks can store miles as cheaply as Li ion batteries can store miles, the fuel cells will remain uncompetitive. That may not be automotive orthodoxy, but its market reality. H2 pressure vessels also tend to have a legislated life of about 5 years.