Although they are not expected to reach the mass market before 2010, fuel cell vehicles (FCVs) may someday revolutionize on-road transportation. This emerging technology has the potential to significantly reduce energy use and harmful emissions, as well as our dependence on foreign oil. FCVs will have other benefits as well.

A Radical Departure

FCVs represent a radical departure from vehicles with conventional internal combustion engines. Like battery-electric vehicles, FCVs are propelled by electric motors. But while battery electric vehicles use electricity from an external source (and store it in a battery), FCVs create their own electricity. Fuel cells onboard the vehicle create electricity through a chemical process using hydrogen fuel and oxygen from the air.

FCVs can be fueled with pure hydrogen gas stored onboard in high-pressure tanks. They also can be fueled with hydrogen-rich fuels; such as methanol, natural gas, or even gasoline; but these fuels must first be converted into hydrogen gas by an onboard device called a "reformer."

FCVs fueled with pure hydrogen emit no pollutants; only water and heat; while those using hydrogen-rich fuels and a reformer produce only small amounts of air pollutants. In addition, FCVs can be twice as efficient as similarly sized conventional vehicles and may also incorporate other advanced technologies to increase efficiency.

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Meeting Challenges Together

Before FCVs make it to your local auto dealer, significant research and development is required to reduce cost and improve performance. We must also find effective and efficient ways to produce and store hydrogen and other fuels.

Automakers, fuel cell developers, component suppliers, government agencies, and others are working hard to accelerate the introduction of FCVs. Partnerships such as the DOE-led FreedomCAR initiative and the California Fuel Cell Partnership have been formed to encourage private companies and government agencies to work together to move these vehicles toward commercialization.

FreedomCAR

FreedomCAR is a new cooperative research effort between the DOE and the U.S. Council for Automotive Research (Ford, General Motors, and DaimlerChrysler) formed to promote research into advanced automotive technologies, such as FCVs, that may dramatically reduce oil consumption and environmental impacts. FreedomCAR's goal is the development of cars and trucks that are:

• Cheaper to operate
• Pollution-free
• Competitively priced
• Free from imported oil

California Fuel Cell Partnership (CaFCP)

The California Fuel Cell Partnership is a collaboration of auto companies, fuel providers, fuel cell technology companies, and government agencies demonstrating fuel cell electric vehicles in California under day-to-day driving conditions. The goals of the partnership are to test and demonstrate the viability of FCVs and related technology under real-world conditions, move them toward commercialization, and increase public awareness. The Partnership expects to place about 60 FCVs and fuel cell buses on the road by 2003.

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