Letters - Brief Article - Letter to the Editor

Automotive Industries, August, 1999

Fuel Cells

The story about fuel cell vehicles in your June issue was thought-provoking, though I wonder whether we've been here before (Wankel rotaries in the '70s). Still, the industry as a whole seems to like what it sees in fuel cells so far judging by the amount of effort so many automakers and suppliers are putting into them.

Vern Clayton Ford Europe via e-mail

The fuel cell and Paradigm plastic-bodied car coverage in your June issue was interesting. We detect an accelerating shift in the industry away from the onboard-reformer approach. Liquid-fuel reforming gives up most of the fuel cell's advantages. The better solution -- giving the fuel cell what it really wants, pure hydrogen -- works fine if the vehicle is first made ultra light and ultra-low-drag. Its three-fold lower tractive load then makes a 350-bar compressed-gas hydrogen tank conveniently packageable. It also makes the fuel-cell stack severalfold smaller, hence tolerant of severalfold higher cost per kW.

That price point will be achieved years before the one that conventionally inefficient cars require. The higher stack efficiency and lower mass, cost and complexity then trigger further mass and cost decompounding.

Amory B. Lovins Co-CEO, Rocky Mountain Institute Chairman, Hypercar Inc. Snowmass, Colo.

Mr. Lovins' RMI is a research organization focused on energy efficiency strategies. He was profiled in AI in Sept. '98. RMI recently published a study on the transition to a hydrogen-fueled economy. See http://www.hypercar.com /go/whatfgo.htm www.hypercar.com/ go/whatfgo.htm.

-- ed.

Your "Get Ready for Fuel Cells" article says the 1999 NECAR4's fuel cell is "800% smaller" than the earlier NECAR's cell. What does it mean for something to be 800% smaller than it was?

Michael Edward Blahay Loraine County Community College via e-mail

It means NECAR4's fuel cell is eight times smaller than before.

-- ed.

Violence Concerto

Marjorie Sorge's June editorial driver training was right on the mark. When my oldest son was 16 and learning to drive I took him out to a large, unobstructed gravel parking lot at our local high school stadium. I forced him to do fishtails and panic stops there so he could get the feel of his car operating in a low-traction environment It is one of the best things I ever did We need what you describe: a place (and probably an instructor) where kids can experience the worst driving conditions, before their inexperience costs them their lives.

Jim Eatman via e-mail

I'm working in a plant making design equipment to new manufacturing lines of airbags safety systems. Congratulations for your June article about the control of violence. Good idea!

Hugo Espitia TRW Chihauhua Mexico via e-mail