Ford, for example, is showing a fuel cell vehicle, a version of its explorer.
Reuters also referred to recent announcements about fuel cell vehicle partnerships as another indication that EVs are on the way out.
Honda too, in its recent mid-term review, announced that it plans to roll out a fuel cell vehicle in Japan, the U.S. and Europe by 2015.
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While the production of hydrogen results in lost energy, Pivovar says that the use of hydrogen in a fuel cell vehicle provides much more oomph than gasoline.
The fuel cell vehicle industry, which has been gestating for decades (see the rosy projections from 2003), would love to someday accomplish what this round of EVs has attained in only a few years.
Burns says a fuel-cell vehicle has one-tenth the number of parts of a traditional internal combustion engine.
And many electric utilities have facilities that create hydrogen power, but consumers can't just pull in with a fuel-cell vehicle and say, "Fill 'er up!"
Honda says the FCX is the first fuel-cell vehicle that works in extreme cold weather (as low as -20 degrees Celsius or -4 degrees Fahrenheit).
The cars, including the Toyota Fuel Cell Hybrid Vehicle advanced (FCHV-adv), fuel up at Proton OnSite in Connecticut, are in test fleets, and the numbers are very small.
The company has delivered a carefully worded pledge: GM will develop a hydrogen-fuel-cell vehicle that could compete on cost with traditional vehicles-if it were to be built in high volumes-by 2010.
The plasmatron probably wouldn't be able to power a fuel-cell vehicle by itself or eliminate the need for hydrogen-fueling stations but, say the engineers, it could be a bridge to hydrogen technology.
Also a type of electric vehicle, a fuel-cell car takes hydrogen gas and converts it into electricity, while emitting only water vapor.
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One fuel-cell factory, however, could make propulsion systems for every size and shape of vehicle.
The more electric a vehicle is, the more copper it contains (with the exception of completely impractical fuel cell cars).
The new standard is part of a broader package of regulations to cut vehicle tailpipe emissions and greenhouse cases and could mean 1.4 million electric, fuel cell and plug-in hybrid cars on California freeways by 2025.
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