What is Digg?109 Comments
- Slovenian6474, on 10/11/2007, -2/+30How many fuel cell cars does Ford have?
- deftech, on 10/11/2007, -7/+23who cares how fast it is, how good is the fuel economy.
- apeweek, on 10/11/2007, -1/+12Fuel cell cars are electric cars, and they even have to have batteries, because the fuel cell output is relatively low, and can't supply enough electricity for acceleration. That means the high performance of this car is almost certainly coming from batteries, not the fuel cell.
This is why the fuel cell idea is bogus. Once you've got a high-performance electric car, why bother with the hydrogen? It takes electricity to make the hydrogen, and the same electricity can be used far more efficiently in a battery.
These EVs, for instance:
http://www.zapworld.com/ZAPWorld.aspx?id=4828
http://www.phoenixmotorcars.com - mt066, on 10/11/2007, -3/+14If Toyota was doing this you guys would be busting a nut
- warsql, on 10/11/2007, -0/+9As if driving around with a tank full of gasoline isn't dangerous.
- Jaster13, on 10/11/2007, -1/+10Ummmm. That is not a car. That is a shell used for aerodynamic testing.
- DrDragun, on 10/11/2007, -3/+12ridiculously specific category to be the winner of. how many ford fuel cell cars have there been? two? this is the fastest one EVER!!!!!!!!!
- Brian48216, on 10/11/2007, -0/+8dugg down for being inaccurate-
Hydrogen is just as safe as gasoline, if not safer
If the tank leaks it escapes into the atmosphere, it doesn't pool like gasoline. It actually has less energy then gasoline by weight. - sn0wmis3r, on 10/11/2007, -0/+6dude, this is america, everyone always wants to go 200mph
- DrDragun, on 10/11/2007, -1/+7this is the fastest one EVER (out of two)
- iamnos, on 10/11/2007, -0/+5This article (http://www.engadget.com/2007/07/11/ford-fusion-999-fuel-cell-car-goes-for-land-speed-record/) gets it right. They're trying for a land speed record for fuel cell cars.
- azkwith, on 10/11/2007, -0/+4Clearly the demand is out there for such a product; however, the infrastructure to support said vehicle just doesn't exist. Car companies are businesses too... they see the demand for it but their hands are kind of tied until the supporting industries catch up
- inactive, on 10/11/2007, -3/+7Lose those hubcaps and I'll take one
- Splinter_XI, on 10/11/2007, -2/+6This vehicle isn't meant to be ramped into full production, it's simply being used to test technology and to set a speed record for a hydrogen powered vehicle. You won't be seeing a copy of this on a showroom floor.
There are many valid engineering lessons that can be learned from a exercise like this. Things in this world improve mainly by incremental changes and experimentation, otherwise Orvill and Wilbur Wright could have skipped messing around with their crude flyer and would have just built an SR-71 in the first place.
They are doing something called R&D ... I'd think that most digg users could appreciate something like that. Instead the best many come up with are simple minded comments about how much they suck. Pathetic really. - disciple83, on 10/11/2007, -0/+4they sealed up the whole car for aerodynamics...a street version will be less covered...It's a temporary thing really, no worries.
- Error601, on 10/11/2007, -0/+4Uh, it's a test and concept car, dumbass. They're not building it for anyone to buy.
- postaldave, on 10/11/2007, -3/+6how about the people who buy cars?
showing that an alt. fuel car can actually move faster then mud is a great thing.
granted algore jr got up to 100mph, who knew?
most of america is not going to buy those sissy hybrids out right now.
now on to the really important issue, why did they make it so ugly? did they drag that body from an 80's junkyard? - themajor, on 10/11/2007, -0/+3actually, on a per mass basis, hydrogen has more energy. You can't hold as much in a given container though since gasoline is liquid and hydrogen would be gaseous in this case.
@unfknreal
price is a problem now. those batteries are pretty sweet, but they are also costly. Also, manufacturing methods might not facilitate mass production yet. I haven't done research on them, but those are typical issues that I believe apply to EV's in general. - apeweek, on 10/11/2007, -0/+3You didn't follow my links. Those electric cars feature Altairnano batteries, which can charge in just 10 minutes, and provide a driving range up to 350 miles. They also have a lifespan of hundreds of thousands of miles, and should not need to be replaced during the lifetime of the car.
- Salgat, on 10/11/2007, -1/+4A friend in my electronics class got a job with Ford to work on Fuel Cell cars. He lives in Monroe County, so I wouldn't be surprised if he was working on them. Sweet!
- jakdracula, on 10/11/2007, -7/+10who cares, it's ugly.
- Jugalator, on 10/11/2007, -0/+3Well it's not even a real car... It's a wind tunnel test model. :-p
- Lightspeed2, on 10/11/2007, -0/+2right, firestone making a few bad tires 10 years ago are directly related to ford's quality!
- Error601, on 10/11/2007, -0/+2Knowing that would require reading the article and not just looking at the picture. So, about 70% of the posters probably don't know that.
- MadOgre, on 10/11/2007, -0/+2There is more to racing that straight lines, *****.
- balthisar, on 10/11/2007, -0/+2They just kicked ass in the JD Power Metrics: http://www.autoblog.com/2007/06/06/ford-dominates-j-d-power-and-associates-2007-initial-quality-st/
- bencefeher, on 10/11/2007, -2/+4WTF they always have to make the fuel-efficient cars look so dumb. What were they thinking when they chose those wheels?
So far Honda has the best looking hybrids in my opinion. - disciple83, on 10/11/2007, -2/+4call it what you want, but i think Ford is making headway into reaching an entire genre of car owners. If the racer can in fact break 200mph on hydrogen, gearheads will be given yet another excuse to look at alternative fuel sources instead of burning rocket fuel to power their big blocks. Racing is still a much larger past time than you give it credit for, and just because you make it sound like you drive some econobox to get to and from your little green meetings and Al Gore speeches, thankfully not everyone else is like you. I, for one, welcome an American solution to alternative fuel speeding. (digs out the Star Spangled Banner and drapes it over the hood of his Chevy.)
- azkwith, on 10/11/2007, -0/+2I am 100% certain that this is a fuel cell vehicle.
- p51d007, on 10/11/2007, -2/+4who said high fuel prices were bad? LOL
- mt066, on 10/11/2007, -0/+2I think its a concept car designed for publicity, and to spawn innovation. A lot of the ideas we are accustomed to today debuted in these prototype concept cars years ago and trickled down into the consumer market. Not to mention, this screams "Ford is doing something about fuel cell cars!"
- SuperCUBE, on 10/11/2007, -4/+6How about you release a car that makes sense for people to drive? Do car buyers normally drive vehicles at 200 MPH?
No.
Release a car that goes at a max of 100 and give us what we WANT. - azkwith, on 10/11/2007, -0/+2Insightful comment! No doubt that Ford will use what they learn about Fuel Cell powered vehicles in a car that you or I might buy in 10 years.
- Splinter_XI, on 10/11/2007, -0/+2Building the vehicle is one thing...getting the infrastructure in place around the country to support that vehicle in a sensible and cost effective manner is entirely another matter.
Do you expect Ford or the other auto makers to start pumping out thousands of fuel cell vehicles a day when there is no infrastructure in place to support them at this point?
This whole discussion is much bigger than any single auto maker... - chiefboiler23, on 10/11/2007, -0/+2finally some one on here isn't an idiot. this man is exactly right, this IS NOT a production vehicle. It is simple a prototype to test out fuel cell technology.
- inactive, on 10/11/2007, -2/+4Ford has most of the fastest cars that come out of the assembly line. Look at the SVT Cobra Mustang, Ford Lightning Truck, SVT Focus and the standard fusion which i heard the other day take off, let me say wow. Yes I have belief that ford will take this one. :)
- Error601, on 10/11/2007, -1/+3They do. You're just a sucker for marketing.
- fpcyber, on 10/11/2007, -0/+2This isn't a street car, its made to test in the desert. Can't you tell the lights a stickers?
- IEEcon, on 10/11/2007, -1/+3Water's actually a byproduct of the electrochemical reaction of hydrogen and oxygen.
- apeweek, on 10/11/2007, -0/+2hey, I'm frustrated, too. For the 100,000,000th time, you CAN charge a battery car fast enough to be practical. The Altairnano batteries in the ZAP-X and Phoenix electric cars charges in 10 minutes.
The Zap-X can go over 300 miles per charge. And the batteries are good for about 300,000 miles.
Battery tech does not stand still. This is not hard to understand either. And EVs need less infrastructure than hydrogen does.
Why add a tank of hydrogen to this? - Error601, on 10/11/2007, -0/+2You could have googled the name. Or just clicked on the name in the article. It's a fuel cell car they've been developing since about 2001.
- Lightspeed2, on 10/11/2007, -0/+2uh no they wouldnt be here because they dont care about speed
- yakky, on 10/11/2007, -1/+2More smoke and mirrors from Detroit! The fact is there is no more energy dense fuel that is as cheap to produce as diesel. Gasoline is a close second. Unless you are planning on running liquid hydrogen instead of compressed, the range is not going to be even close. Even liquid H2 is 4 times less energy dense than gasoline. Then comes the fact that its not energy pulled out of the ground, you actually have to make hydrogen.
Nice chart of energy density:
http://xtronics.com/reference/energy_density.htm - PatrickBrown, on 10/11/2007, -0/+1"They charge with an on-board 6.6kW charger that plugs into a 220V outlet, the same as an electric dryer outlet in your home. Off-board charging can be accomplished with a special charger in as little as 10 minutes."
And as far as infrastructure goes... that is what the government is for. - balthisar, on 10/11/2007, -1/+2The F.A. indicates "non-running aerodynamic buck" so don't expect this to represent the real friggin' vehicle. Buck is industry speak.
- kurupttek, on 10/11/2007, -6/+7it still is ford so who cares?
- azkwith, on 10/11/2007, -0/+1Yeah... a buck is what they used to make molds to make the body with dude... it will look exactly like that.
- iamnos, on 10/11/2007, -2/+3Because I can pull up to a hydrogen station and refuel in a matter of a few minutes. Try that when you batteries run out of juice.
- inactive, on 10/11/2007, -1/+2I will believe in hydrogen when I can go down to a dealership, pick out the car, and know that I can refuel it when I need to...which is to say, never. Just work on the battery tech and give me an electric car. Stop screwing around with ridiculous solutions that only Big Oil, or Big Agriculture are in favor of.
-
Show 51 - 100 of 107 discussions
Digg is coming to a city (and computer) near you! Check out all the details on our 
© Digg Inc. 2009
— Content created and posted by Digg users is