Quantum Delivers Hydrogen Hybrid Vehicles to Burbank PR Newswire - March 17, 2006 06:00 IRVINE, Calif., March 17, 2006 /PRNewswire-FirstCall via COMTEX/ -- Quantum Fuel Systems Technologies Worldwide, Inc., (Nasdaq: QTWW) today announced the delivery of five hydrogen-fueled Toyota Prius hybrid vehicles to the City of Burbank, California. This is part of a larger South Coast Air Quality Management District (AQMD) program to develop and demonstrate 30 hydrogen hybrid vehicles to fleets in Southern California. The formal delivery will take place during a ceremony to be held today at the City of Burbank's Public Works Yard. Under contract to the AQMD, Quantum engineered a state-of-the-art OEM-caliber hydrogen fuel system, optimized the performance of the vehicle system, completed accelerated long-term durability testing, and performed crash testing, to verify the design of the vehicles. The complete hydrogen internal combustion engine fuel system was developed by Quantum at its Advanced Vehicle Concept Center in Lake Forest, CA. Quantum executed the program as an OEM-level effort, including designing and producing the advanced hydrogen storage system, fuel injection system, and electronic controls. Quantum subjected the final design to extensive system optimization and vehicle verification testing to ensure super ultra low emission vehicle (SULEV) emissions performance, drivability, durability, and crash survivability of the hydrogen Priuses. This event continues the formal rollout of the AQMD's hydrogen hybrid vehicle fleet and infrastructure demonstration program. The AQMD initiated this effort to establish a network of hydrogen fueling stations and deploy a fleet of hydrogen hybrid vehicles. A key benefit of this program will be the opportunity to educate the public on the use and safety of hydrogen as a fuel through its demonstration in vehicles with which the public is already familiar. Burbank is one of five cities partnering with the AQMD to demonstrate five hydrogen-fueling stations and a total of 30 hybrid Priuses, with internal combustion engines that have been modified by Quantum to burn gaseous hydrogen. In addition to Burbank, the demonstration sites for the vehicles will include the cities of Ontario, Riverside, Santa Ana, and Santa Monica, as well as the AQMD headquarters in Diamond Bar. Each city and the AQMD will operate five hydrogen-fueled Priuses for five years. "Quantum is pleased to be the supplier of the hydrogen hybrid Priuses that will be used in the City of Burbank. We believe that this program will help de-mystify hydrogen as a transportation fuel and look forward to supporting the City and the AQMD to achieve that goal," said Alan P. Niedzwiecki, President and CEO of Quantum. "We are proud that Quantum's leadership in hydrogen, hybrid, and alternative fuel technologies is supporting the AQMD in achieving healthful air quality in Southern California."
Green Car congress has more details on the vehicle. From the specs it appears to be a short range vehicle, but it's very clean. It's a good start that is best for urban duty at this point. H2 Prius Specifications Power 70 hp (52 kW) @ 4,500 rpm Torque 111 Nm @ 4,000 rpm Fuel consumption 56–58 m/kg (FTP city test) 40–60 m/kg (real world estimate) Fuel capacity 1.6 kg @ 5,000 psig /compressed 2.4 kg @ 5,000 psig (extended range package) http://www.greencarcongress.com/2006/01/qu..._deliver_1.html
Ovonics (part of Energy Conversion Devices) has a different hydrogen storage system that they're promoting, and just introduced their own fuel-cell test car to California: http://biz.yahoo.com/iw/060316/0113569.html They're saying they get a range of just under 200 miles (vs. maybe 130 miles in Quantum's extended range package), plus you don't have to worry about a tank being pressurized to 5000 psi. The Ovoncis press release doesn't say who did the fuel cell portion however, and it's a single car (for now). nerfer
Ya know, I've stopped caring about H for cars. Take a look a darreld's website (http://www.darelldd.com/ev/). Read ALL of it and the links. It's mind-boggling the disinformation and conspiracy surrounding H over straight EVs. We are truly a gullible and stupid species sometimes...
i recently attended the World Hydrogen Fuel Conference in Long Beach this past Tuesday, and had the opportunity to talk with the rep from Quantum about their H2 Prius. Interesting concept, and i was really impressed with their development and testing of individual components as well as complete systems. However, what struck me as odd, was the limited range available with the hydrogen fueled cars: 90-140 miles!! thats a whole lot of time spent at the pump! Until they can get the storage problem taken care of, I don't think hydrogen is a viable option for the consumer market.
They will get the storage problem sorted one day. What they can't do is rewrite the rules of thermodynamics. EV (or plug-in hybrid in EV mode) will always use about a quarter the amount of energy as a hydrogen fuelled car, and that means consumers will be expected to pay at least 4 times as much to fill up with hydrogen. If somebody offered you a carbon-neutral, totally clean fuel you could run in your gasoline vehicle today, but you had to pay $12 per gallon for it, would you buy it? Frankly bizarre that GM think there's a strong business case for this whole hydrogen thing.
Wait, wait, I'd like to retract my above post...forgot subsidies to the oil companies to MAKE hydrogen work...that ought to bring the price down. Hmm, just like gasoline...hmmm...
i lived in Riverside for 7 years, if there was ever a place that can take advantage of the advancement of wind (they do have a lot of wind farms) and solar, that is the place. March and Norton AFB are located there because of the near perfect flying weather, which also means a near perfect solar collection environment. San Bernadino, being the largest county in the country, has TONS of wide open space not being used for anything except as scorpion condos... its close to a major Electricity user (Orange and LA counties) so, there can be a viable VERY large scale project that i feel would work out there. sure the intial outlay would be expensive, but it needs to be done. as far as hydrogen goes, unless you are in an area where you can tap unlimited geothermal energy safely, then hydrogen is a waste of time and money. its simply not viable
