New Dual Fuel Prius Launched

[JohnInStockie]

For those of you that are interested, a dual fuel Prius has been launched today, not much details yet, but I'm sure more to come.

Link

John

 

[john]

Still just a prototype of their plug-in hybrid, but a welcome step forward.

 

[flecc]

Certainly is a welcome step forward John, at last the Prius becomes a true hybrid with two external energy sources, one potentially much more "green".

Hopefully Honda and Lexus will follow suit and help promote more public charging points.
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[JohnInStockie]

@ Flecc

It looks like I am going to be eating my own words (to a degree) if this takes off, which I for one hope it will.

Home Filling Station

John

 

[JohnInStockie]

What we dont know of course (or I dont know anyway) is just how much electricity it takes to make hydrogen, if its much more than using the dual fuel prius, then would the prius (and battery technology) be more cost effective?

Could we move this thread to The Charging Post??

John

 

[flecc]

Interesting John, but I suspect the Prius approach is much more economical, electrolysis for hydrogen production using substantial amounts of electricity.

As with aluminium production, it's best when there's abundant cheap supplies from hydro or the like. I'd hate to be producing hydrogen at home with the current unit charge for my electricity.
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[Django]

Any idea about the cost of a recharge for this? Looks really interesting.

 

[The Maestro]

Its good to see that Toyota have done what hobbyists have been doing for about 8 years anyway. Only has a range of about 6 miles on battery. Might be good for some people who generally use their cars for short trips or can plug in at work.

Hydrogen takes around 5 times the amount of electrical energy to extract from water than it gives back under conventional thinking. Anyone who believes anything else seems to get called a nutter or shot (if you believe some people). Maybe there are other routes to making hydrogen though. I've heard of some but I'm not sure how sustanible they are.

 

[flecc]

I know of two viable routes to make hydrogen on a large scale, one by electrolysis, the other a chemical method using a nuclear reactor heat without the intermediate electricity production.

That second method is at an experimental stage only at present, so I don't know the economics, and it would be many years before it could be ready for use.
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