Drive Past the Gas Station With New Technology

by Jerry Edgerton

Imagine a car with plenty of room for passengers and baggage, a comfortable ride, and excellent acceleration where the only tailpipe emission is water. It's not just an environmentalist's dream. The prototype Chevrolet Equinox small SUV, powered by a hydrogen fuel cell, which I drove recently, has all those qualities. But don't expect to see one on sale at your Chevy dealer any time soon.

The hydrogen fuel cell—along with compressed natural gas vehicles and plug-in electric cars—all could help cut U.S. use of gasoline as well as reduce tailpipe gases that contribute to air pollution and global warming. But it isn't yet clear that manufacturers can build hydrogen cars or plug-in electrics cheaply enough for most consumers to afford. And with natural gas vehicles—and even more so with hydrogen—assuring enough places to refill the tank when fuel runs low is a major roadblock.

Small numbers of the hydrogen and natural gas cars are on the road now, and plug-in electrics like the Chevrolet Volt should be on sale within two to three years. General Motors Corp. (GM) has placed about 100 of its fuel cell Equinox prototypes in the driveways of volunteer test families to gather data in locations with a handful of hydrogen refueling stations in the New York, Los Angeles, and Washington, D.C., areas. Honda also is road-testing its fuel cell car known as the FCX Clarity.

And Honda already sells a compressed natural gas car, the Civic GX, but makes only about 2,000 a year because of fuel supply issues. A GM spokesman says the plug-in Chevy Volt will be on sale by late 2010. But its likely price—for what essentially is a commuter-only car—will be an issue, says analyst Michael Omotoso in the Detroit office of the research firm J.D. Power and Associates. "The Volt may cost over $40,000," notes Omotoso. "That will be a tough sell against existing hybrids like the Toyota Prius, which you don't have to plug in."

Here, in order of the likelihood that you might see significant numbers of these vehicles on the road in the next five years, are closer looks at plug-in electrics, compressed natural gas, and hydrogen fuel cell vehicles.

Plug-in electrics

These cars will run on a battery-powered electric motor for up to 40 miles on one charge—a distance that covers the daily round-trip commute of more than 75% of Americans. The Chevy Volt also will have a small gasoline engine—but only for recharging the batteries once they begin to get low. That potentially could extend the range to 360 miles of highway driving.

Unlike the Prius and other traditional hybrids—which switch between gas and electric power—the Volt's gasoline engine will not actually drive the wheels. Given this complicated technology, it's hard now to estimate gas mileage. But J.D. Power's Omotoso says it appears that it could be between 80 mpg and 130 mpg.

Additionally, environmental benefits from a plug-in are hard to assess. The additional power used for the car comes from an electric utility that may be generating it in a coal-fired or other plant that puts out greenhouse gases. If however, that electricity were generated by, say, wind power, no added pollution would be generated.

Cars like the Volt clearly are not for everyone. In addition to the cost issue, a plug-in would work well only for an owner with a suitable commuting distance, schedule, and a garage or other convenient place to plug the car into a standard 110-volt outlet. It may take as long as 10 hours for a full recharge. So, for someone who drove 30 miles a day and recharged the battery 30 days a month, at the national average cost of nine cents per kilowatt hour, that would add 81 cents/day or about $24/month to your electricity bill. Seen another way, however, that cost would be the equivalent of gasoline at 75 cents per gallon. This is according to calculations by the CalCar Initiative—a nonprofit group in Palo Alto, Calif., working on electric cars.

The major challenge for this car was developing suitable new batteries. But GM reps say they are encouraged with testing of new-technology batteries for the Volt and will be ready to sell the car to the public by late 2010. While GM is the farthest along, Nissan and other major companies are working on plug-ins as well. Whatever its technology and cost problems, cars like the Volt have the advantage of using two readily available fuel sources: the plug in the wall and the local gas station.

Compressed natural gas cars

If you've watched any cable news show recently, you likely have seen ads financed by oil man T. Boone Pickens touting natural gas for cars as the best way to cut our use of foreign oil. Indeed, U.S. natural gas supplies are plentiful, and the technology is already pretty well-demonstrated.

Honda sells a limited supply of Civic GX compressed natural gas cars for around $25,000 that drive much like a gasoline-powered Civic. To see details of pricing and options for the Civic GX, go to automotive information sites Edmunds.com or Kelley Blue Book (kbb.com).

But the big issue is refueling; test drivers from Consumer Reports and other outlets found themselves worrying they might be stranded by running out of natural gas before they reached a refueling station. And at the stations, they often met lines at the pump reminiscent of the 1970s energy crisis. Because of this, most natural gas cars have been sold to state and local governments that had their own refueling stations.

But what happened in Utah in 2007, and continuing in 2008, suggests potential public acceptance of natural gas. When a natural gas company there had excess capacity and opened its pumps for public sale at the equivalent of 87 cents per gallon of gasoline, sales of new and used natural gas cars spiked. (Prices for natural gas are higher in other states, however.) And if your home already has a natural gas supply, you potentially could install a natural gas pump for a car.

John O'Dell, test-driver for Edmunds.com based in Santa Monica, Calif., had one put in his garage. His electricity and natural gas costs were the equivalent of $2.53 per gallon of gasoline, and his Civic GX averaged 29.4 miles per gallon equivalent. To read more of his experiences with this car, click here.

Hydrogen fuel cell vehicles

This is the most innovative new technology, but also the furthest from producing large numbers of everyday vehicles. A fuel cell does not use combustion, as in a gasoline or natural gas engine, but a chemical reaction that produces electricity. An electric motor drives the wheels.

As I accelerate up a Pennsylvania highway in a test-drive of the Chevrolet Equinox fuel cell vehicle, there is no engine sound—only a slight hum. GM says it hopes to be selling fuel cell cars within a few years, but the fuel supply issue remains problematic. "It will be at least 10 or 15 years and cost at least $10 billion by some estimates" to have enough hydrogen refueling stations to make these vehicles practical, says J.D. Power analyst Omotoso. "It's not clear that the government or private firms want to invest that kind of money."

Right now, the best way to save on high gas prices for most people is to buy a smaller car with better gas mileage than their old vehicle. But if government policy or unexpectedly high private investment gives one of these new technologies a boost, it could help with solving energy supply and greenhouse gas problems sooner than we think.

Jerry Edgerton is an automotive writer whose work has appeared in Money and other national magazines. He also is the author of "Car Shopping Made Easy."

Published November 3, 2008

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