Fuel cells leading way to clean cars

Ford Motor Co.’s recent decision to quit developing battery-powered cars didn’t dampen the enthusiasm at an alternative car road rally getting ready to depart Monterey today.

Tom Abate, Chronicle Staff Writer

That’s because the three-day event, which ends in Santa Barbara, will feature seven cars that derive electric power from hydrogen fuel cells, producing zero emissions at the tailpipe.

California law mandates that by October 2003 automakers doing business in the state must sell a certain percentage of zero-emission vehicles. There have been two main types of ZEVs under development, battery-powered cars and hydrogen fuel cell cars.

"Automakers now believe that fuel cells offer a better chance of meeting the ZEV challenge," said Joe Irvin, communications director for the California Fuel Cell Partnership, a public-private consortium.

Irvin said it came as no surprise when Ford said last week it was pulling the plug on its Think battery-powered electric cars.

Irvin said consumers have shunned battery-powered cars because of limited range and a long recharge cycle. Published reports say Ford only sold a couple of thousand Think cars over the last three years, far below its target of over 5,000 annually.

In contrast to battery power, fuel cell vehicles derive their electric charge using hydrogen gas stored in a pressure tank, said Paul Lancaster, chief financial officer of Ballard Power Systems of Vancouver, British Columbia, a maker of such systems.

In a fuel cell, Lancaster said the lone electron circling the hydrogen atom is pulled away, run through a circuit and then reunited with the atom’s proton.

The reunion takes place in the presence of oxygen, producing water as an emission.

Lancaster said fuel cell electric cars have an advantage over battery electrics, because drivers can tank up on hydrogen just like they now fill their gas tanks.

California ZEV requirements, first enacted in 1990 and since revised, have driven development of battery, fuel cell and hybrid cars, state officials said.

"We feel very strongly that the car companies would not be experimenting with these technologies were it not for the ZEV rules," said Jerry Martin, spokesman for the California Air Resources Board.

These alternative technologies include hybrid cars, which combine gasoline engines and electric power systems to extend the fuel economy of the gas engine. Honda and Toyota both have hybrid cars on the market and other manufacturers plan to follow their lead.

California was supposed to start enforcing its ZEV rules with the new cars coming on the market for 2003, but state and federal court rulings in the spring have temporarily halted enforcement.

E-mail Tom Abate at [email protected].

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