Photos: Volkswagen HyMotion fuel cell vehicle

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Volkswagen showed off its fourth generation fuel cell research vehicle in San Francisco, making its North American debut. This vehicle, built into Volkswagen's new Tiguan crossover model, uses hydrogen to create electricity, providing power for the car's electric drive motor. It also has a lithium ion battery pack for extra electricity storage, and gets the gasoline equivalent of 42-to-62 miles per gallon. A Volkswagen spokesman predicted a consumer version in 7 years to 10 years, when a hydrogen refueling infrastructure is built up.

Click here for photos of the Volkswagen HyMotion fuel cell vehicle.

[albizzia]

I don't expect any hydrogen powered cars for consumers in 10 years, as H2 fuel cells will still be too expensive, H2 storage will be too expensive, H2 ICE is too inefficient and has too short of a driving range, but mostly because the plug-in revolution will blow H2 away. Batteries are more efficient and less expensive now, and that will still be true 10 years from now.