At a recent conference, both Bosch and Delphi suggested that it would take at least a decade longer than previously thought to bring fuel cell technology into mass production. Nevertheless, manufacturers and parts suppliers are increasingly committed to the project, making fuel cells the likeliest replacement for internal combustion power.
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The search for an alternative fuel to petrol and diesel has been ongoing for many years. Several potential replacements have been mooted, most notably liquefied petroleum gas (LPG) and compressed natural gas (CNG), which have both made in-roads into the fuel market. Yet the true successor to petrol was always expected to be electricity.
Vehicle manufacturers and parts companies have been focusing on a way to generate electricity efficiently within the vehicle, which is both cheap to produce and environmentally friendly. The fuel cell has been the subject of intense research in the last decade and is likely to be the eventual successor to the combustion engine. The fuel cell generates electricity through combining hydrogen and oxygen, with the only emission being water.
Originally, vehicle manufacturers claimed that fuel cell cars would exist in large numbers by 2010, but these estimates have constantly been revised as technological and other issues hamper development.
At the recent Automotive News World Congress in the US, Delphi indicated that the widespread appearance of fuel cells within cars would not happen until at least 2020, while Bosch has predicted 2025. Either way, the advent of fuel cell motoring will seemingly occur years after the original prediction of 2010.
In the interim period, fuel cells will find their way into vehicles in the form of hybrid gas-powered units, an ideal testing ground for the technology before cars become largely fuel-cell powered. Quite when fuel cell cars will be available on the forecourt remains uncertain. However, it is clear that vehicle manufacturers and parts companies are committed to the research and development of this technology, and the race is on to be first to market.
