Toyota Hydrogen Fuel Cell Withstands Winter Temperatures

By Author: Seth Walker
Total Articles: 4
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One detail that has changed since the lithium-ion battery days is the method in which power is produced. Hydrogen is a gaseous fuel instead of a solid battery, and when put up against the efficiency of the lithium-ion battery it shows a great improvement. Liquid-fuel like gasoline and diesel will always have the best numbers when it comes to appropriate automotive use, but when choosing a more environmentally sound vehicle, the Toyota fuel cell has proven to be a crowd pleaser. With the innovations to the design and materials, the end result hopes to be an additional cost reduction of about 10%, making that decision to buy a little easier.

The whole nation has felt, and may still be feeling the artic chill that has blanketed part of the country with record low temperatures and snow. Traveling in the snow and ice is already a dangerous adventure so the additional icy obstacles are not helping driving conditions. Safety and reliability are some, if not the, most important features when buyers look for a car. A plus for manufacturers to be able to offer this security is the top priority for Toyota and the new fuel cells ...
... they have designed.

Regular combustion engine cars can get too cold but will warm up when the engine is started and the heat will warm up the components. That’s where the problem lies with the fuel cells of the past. Mirroring the performance of a gasoline powered engines has proved to be a hurdle. Battery chemistry has been struggling to cope with the icy weather, effecting performance and range of the battery. Other manufacturers are still trying to overcome this problem while Toyota’s Hydrogen Fuel Cell has had a different story.

The biggest question on people’s minds is whether or not the fuel cells will stand-up to the traditional gasoline cars in the cold weather, especially since this season's bitterly icy condition. The Toyota FCHV-adv was confirmed to be comparable to the gasoline engines, which is an industry first. Customers are reported to have been able to start, drive, and keep the 300 mile range of the hydrogen fuel cells with temperatures dropping to a minus 37 degrees Celsius or 99 degrees Fahrenheit. The heater blasting did not hurt the sustainability of power and efficiency during the drive either. Over the last ten years, the fuel cell vehicles have been put up to some pretty harsh conditions and passed with flying colors. Not only a trip to Yellowknife, Canada for testing the effect the cold had on startup, durability, and overall performance, but it also had no troubles in the heat in Death Valley, California.

2015 is the year that engineers hope to be producing these improved hydrogen fuel cells on a larger scale, with the only speed bumps being technical issues and durability requirements. Easy access to Hydrogen is going to be one of those obstacles. Production, transport, storage, supply and refueling are all aspects that will need to be worked out and have solutions for before this can be a widely used option by the public. The estimated cost of a hydrogen fuel station is about 2.9 million dollars while the gas stations of today costing about 1 million dollars, almost triple the cost but overtime the economic viability can reduce to prices for all parts of that bill.

Today, with the amount of choices people have to make daily, a little help in making the right choice can be a literal life saver. What is to happen when the electric car driven into the mountains decides not to start when needing to get out of the cold, or what happens if the battery runs out of power before you reach a safe destination? These are no longer questions when depending on the hydrogen fuel cells created by Toyota engineers. Let’s go places.

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