Hydrogen Cars vs. Hybrid Cars

Hydrogen cars do not generate power by burning anything



Imagine the near future. You bend down, stick your head underneath your tailpipe and take good long sip. You could do that with a hydrogen car. These cars are not fully on the market yet. But as people flock to buy hybrid cars, they wonder if just maybe a better car is coming out. The concept of that better car is the hydrogen car. And some people think hybrid cars just can't compare. Below, you will find out a few things about hydrogen cars.

Instead of burning a bit of fuel, like hybrid cars too, hydrogen cars burn absolutely nothing. What happens instead is a chemical reaction. Hydrogen and oxygen get converted into energy and their byproduct is water. Hybrid cars certainly can't do that. And no one is trying to make hybrid cars do anything like that.

Not only does hydrogen burn hotter than gasoline, but it also burns faster. That means hydrogen cars can probably go zooming down the highway at unbelievable speeds. They can probably come to a dead stop and start right up to keep up with the traffic in about zero seconds per minute. Boy, talk about the future. Hybrid cars just can't compete with that kind of efficiency. Hybrid-car batteries certainly don't burn hotter and faster than hydrogen.

Some people think that hydrogen cars are some sort of hyped-up fantasy
Many people think that hybrid cars are much more feasible than hydrogen cars. And hybrid cars already cut down emissions from 30 to 50%. So why in the world would people want to invest time and money in hydrogen cars?

Hydrogen is a not a fuel source, but a fuel carrier
That means that hydrogen has to be produced from other sources. And people are hoping that hydrogen will be able to be produced from things such as wind power or other types of renewable sources. Right now, it looks like all we have is natural gas. That is the most efficient way to get hydrogen. And if that's the case, then there's no need to make hydrogen cars. Hybrid cars already cut down on how much gas people use. Who needs hydrogen cars that may end up costing us more in natural gas?

It will be hard create a lot of stations to fuel hydrogen cars
People are saying there is an overwhelming amount of challenges when it comes to creating the multitudes of hydrogen fueling stations that would be needed if millions of people suddenly started owning hydrogen cars. Hybrid cars use gas. And we already have gas stations.

But president Bush has made it clear that he wants hydrogen cars to be on the roads in significant numbers by the year 2020. So it seems that those who oppose hydrogen cars might just have to hold their breath and see if hydrogen cars actually live up to the lofty promises people associate with them. If they don't live up to their promises, people will probably start running back to hybrid cars in droves. And that's not too bad. Hybrid cars or hydrogen cars, one of them is going to get us to cleaner air.