DaimlerChrysler Delivers 5 Fuel Cell Cars to LAX
10 February 2006
|
| F-Cells to LAX |
DaimlerChrysler delivered five F-Cell hydrogen fuel-cell vehicles to the Los Angeles International Airport (LAX) for use in its fleet. The vehicles will be fueled at BP/Praxair’s retail-designed hydrogen fueling station at LAX.
The five DaimlerChrysler hydrogen fuel cell vehicles are joining the largest alternative-fuel airport fleet in the nation, in which more than 50% of the vehicles use alternative fuels, including compressed natural gas, liquid natural gas, propane and hybrid-electric and solar power.
Los Angeles World Airports (LAWA) has been committed to alternative-fuel technology since 1993, when we introduced such technology into our airport operations. Hydrogen fuel cell power is the next clean-fuel technology and we are pleased to be in the forefront of its development. The addition of hydrogen-fueled cars into our fleet today and the establishment of a retail-designed fueling station at LAX in 2004 are concrete examples of our commitment to improving air quality.
—Dave Waldner, LAWA alternative-fuels fleet manager
The DaimlerChrysler fuel-cell vehicle fleet is diverse, including medium-duty fuel cell Dodge Sprinter vans and more than 30 Mercedes-Benz Citaro fuel-cell buses that operate in Europe, the United States, Japan, Australia and Singapore in addition to research vehicles such as the Hygenius (earlier post).
DaimlerChrysler has more than 25 fuel cell vehicles in customer hands in California and more than 100 total around the world.
Good!
They will help prove that Hydrogen and fuel cells are not a doable thing for automotive transportation.
Posted by: Lucas | 10 February 2006 at 10:46 AM
Lucas. Please explain.
Posted by: t | 10 February 2006 at 12:10 PM
I'm curious as to how long these fuel cell stacks are lasting. On top of being rather pricey compared to battery electric, they also seem to die faster. I suppose they are still in 'experimental' stage and need a lot of R&D... I guess it's worth it to keep us hooked on their fuels rather than simple electricity we can generate ourselves. We shall see if they can pull it off.
Posted by: Schwa | 10 February 2006 at 02:16 PM
t - Go to Google and study the realities of Hydrogen. It just isn't a practical fuel for small vehicles. I expect to see cars using fusion before seeing one powered by fuel cells.
Posted by: Lucas | 10 February 2006 at 02:36 PM
It seems like the advances in batteries way well make the FCV totally unnecessary, which will help the efficiency. The renewable energy will go a lot further if we only need to produce electricity with the available capacity and not electricity and then hydrogen.
Bring on the EVs! Seems like the ROI is a lot closer in that sphere than in FCVs.
Don't get me wrong, FCs make a lot of sense for stationary power/heat generation. FCs combined with solar/wind would be a good solution to our energy problems.
Posted by: Tripp | 12 February 2006 at 09:36 AM
seems to me like people are overestimating the amount of real renewable electricity production with their excited talk about EVs. i remember recently getting a power report card in my Dept of Water and Power (Los Angeles) bill and there wasn't that much renewable energy there.
also, during the special election here in california, there was a proposition to have the public utitlities comission regulate "electricity service providers". this measure failed! part of it was "Requires all retail electric sellers, instead of just private utilities, to increase renewable energy resource procurement". go and look at it yourselves - http://www.voterguide.ss.ca.gov/prop80/title_summary.shtml
Posted by: lensovet | 12 February 2006 at 03:36 PM