Hydrogen Cars Go Cross-Country -- With Help From Fossil Fuels

Aug. 13, 2008 — -- Hydrogen cars get no respect. A lot of people consider them the stuff of science fiction, a technology as vaporous as the stuff that drives them.

But despite some hurdles even Liu Xiang couldn't clear -- creating a fueling infrastructure comes to mind -- Uncle Sam and the big automakers love hydrogen cars and are driving across the country in a fleet of them to prove they work.

Even if they're occasionally hauled on trucks.

Hydrogen evangelists set out from Portland, Maine, today to take the gospel to 31 cities in 18 states during the two-week "Hydrogen Road Tour." Although H2 is the most common element in the universe, it can be really tough to find when the fuel gauge is approaching "E." With only 62 hydrogen stations nationwide -- one opened in Massachusetts just this morning -- portable fueling stations will keep the cars going when they aren't being ferried on trucks.

While some may consider that cheating, road trip organizers say it's part of the point. "Part of what we're doing with the tour is raising awareness of the need for the fueling infrastructure," Patrick Serfass of the National Hydrogen Association tells us.

The association joined the Department of Energy and the California Fuel Cell Partnership in organizing the tour, which hopes to convince people hydrogen is a viable fuel on the cusp of commercialization. "The technology needed to put these cars on the road, and keep them moving, exists today," says Paul Brubaker, head of the federal transportation department's Research and Innovative Technology Administration. "The question is not if hydrogen powered vehicles will be available commercially, but when."

For all its promise of emissions-free motoring, hydrogen has more than it's share of naysayers, but that isn't keeping the auto industry from pouring hundreds of millions of dollars into developing cars that run on it. Honda's leasing the FCX Clarity (pictured) fuel cell vehicle and made a big deal about actress Jamie Lee Curtis picking one up last week. Other celebrities - including Jay Leno, Edward Norton and Will Ferrell - are driving the BMW Hydrogen 7, which also runs on gasoline. General Motors plans to put 100 Equinox fuel cell vehicles in driveways and Toyota's developed a fuel cell vehicle with the unprecedented range of 516 miles. Even Mazda's getting in on the act with a hydrogen-fueled RX-8 that could be in showrooms by 2012.