Currently, hydrogen is the most common element in the universe. But if Ford gets its way, we'll have to rethink our science texts in the coming decades. At least, according to The Onion we might.

In yesterday's Onion Radio News piece, anchor Doyle Redland talked about the new Foresight, a hydrogen-powered SUV from Ford. As Bill Ford says in the piece, "The 11-ton Foresight will be unaffected by the price gouging whims of OPEC as it uses water electrolysis to gather fuel from the oceans and the fresh mountain air." The one problem is that this one model is expected to use up all of the world's hydrogen supplies by 2070. Of course, by then, we might be in the stars and can collect hydrogen from space.

Remember, it's all a joke, and an old one at that. This article was first published a few years ago and talks about a Fall 2004 rollout of the Ford Foresight. Still funny, though.

[Source: The Onion]

As difficult as it may be to believe, interest in alternative fuel vehicles actually pre-dates the launch of AutoblogGreen a little more than two years ago. Another fact that may be tough to swallow is that the BBC's Top Gear was not always the hour of silliness we see today with Clarkson, Hammond and May. In fact Top Gear's current format only began in 2002. Going back in time it had a more staid magazine style format with hosts such as William Woollard. Way back in 1990, Woollard did a pair of segments on alternative fuels and the threat of Global Warming from increased greenhouse gas emissions.

Watching these 18 year old segments, it seems not a lot has changed. Woollard looked at hydrogen with an early prototype of the BMW Hydrogen 7, methanol, CNG, solar powered EVs and even hybrids. The GM Impact, the precursor to the EV1, even makes a brief appearance while discussing battery electric vehicles. In that pre-lithium ion era, sodium sulfur batteries seemed to be one possible solution to range and weight problem of storing electrons. Although such batteries were tested by automakers, the high operating temperatures (up to 350 °C) limited their usefulness. Nonetheless, the similar Zebra batteries are still being evaluated today and used in some applications. Check out the videos after the jump. Thanks to Joseph for the tip!

[Source: YouTube]

Honda has taken the wraps off of the Japanese version of the hydrogen-powered FCX Clarity and announced that the sleek burgundy sedan will be available for lease in Honda's home country come November.

The Japanese FCX Clarity's specifications (available after the jump) are mostly the same as the American version, with two noticeable differences. First, and high on the list of items everyone is talking about, the Japanese model has climate-controlled seats up front and in back. That's huge. The other item is that Honda is now claiming a range of 620km (385 miles). That's a lot more than the 270 miles that the American version is rated at, but the numbers for the Japanese model were done in 10-15 mode using Honda calculations and the American numbers were calculated with "Honda in-house data calculated using previously approved EPA methodology." Since the American FCX holds its 4.1 kg of hydrogen at 5000psi while the Japanese version stores 171 liters at 35MPa (these are two different ways to say the same thing), I think the difference comes in the testing and calculating rather than any updated technology. The 10-15 cycle is a predominantly urban cycle which benefits from the regen capability provided by the lithium ion battery. The lower U.S. range is based on combined urban/highway cycles with 2008 test procedure.


[Source: Honda]

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The new Subaru Stella plug-in isn't the only Japanese green car making its debut next month at the G8 conference in Hokkaido. Suzuki's in the game as well with a new hydrogen fuel cell version of its SX4 crossover, the SX4-FCV. Fitted with a fuel cell supplied by GM, and a 70 MPa (10,000 psi) storage tank for the H₂, the SX4-FCV has a maximum operating range of 250 kilometers and a top speed of 120 km/h (around 75 mph). Power output from the fuel cell is rated at 80 kW, while the motor delivers 68 kW. Road testing has been approved by Japan's Ministry of Land, Infrastructure, and transport, and will commence soon.

[Source: Suzuki]

Finally, we've discovered the BMW Hydrogen 7's perfect refueling station. A new Shell station that sells both hydrogen and standard gasoline opened yesterday in West Los Angeles (oh so close to Hollywood, which is providing most of the the drivers for the dual-fuel luxury vehicle). The station is located on Santa Monica Boulevard and Federal Avenue, near I-405. If I'm not mistaken - and I might very well be, so feel free to say so in the comments - this is right near the recently-opened Tesla Motors store, which is kind of ironic.

New FCX Clarity drivers and participants in GM's Project Driveway should be able to refuel their cars at the station and feel pretty good about the provenance of their purchase. Shell will be selling hydrogen made using electrolysis right there at the station. To further cast a green haze over the whole thing, Shell is buying "green electricity" from the utilities to crack the water.

[Source: Shell Hydrogen LLC]

Mazda has declared that by the middle of the decade they will have replaced their entire powertrain lineup and cut fuel consumption by 30 percent. On the powertrain side, engines will be upgraded across the board including a new direct injected wankel rotary. In 2009, a new Smart Idle Stop system will debut that restarts the engine using the direct injection system instead of the starter. Fuel will be sprayed directly into the cylinder and ignited to get the pistons moving. New gas engines will get direct injection and Mazda will add new clean diesels to the lineup worldwide as well as continuing to develop hydrogen-fueled engines.

Ford's Japanese affiliate intends to continue down the path begun with last years new Mazda2 and the new 6 this year by reducing the weight of new models. The trend of recent decades to higher powered engines has led to a cascading effect of increased mass to support the power. Mazda intends to reverse the process. From 2011, Mazda wants to cut at least 220lbs from new models.

[Source: Mazda]

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We already had spoken about the fuel cell technology (borrowed from Nissan) installed in a plain Renault Scénic, one of Europe's most popular compact minivans. The interesting part of the concept, at least from the aesthetic point of view, is that the car's interior room remained untouched, thanks to sandwhiching most of the components in the floor of the vehicle.

Like other fuel cell vehicles, the fuel-cell Scénic ZEV H2 features a hybrid powertrain. The system includes lithium-ion batteries that, together with the high-pressure tanks, allow the car to have a 220-mile range. The 350-bar hydrogen tank (3.7kg of H₂) will be substituted by a 700 bar tank at a later date, which would allow a range of more than 300 miles.

Find the full press release after the jump.

[Source: Renault]

By the middle of the next decade Mercedes-Benz wants its entire lineup to be able to operate entirely free of petroleum. The German giant is working on a variety of technologies that will help provide crude oil free transport such as battery electrics, fuel cells and highly efficient internal combustion engines that can operate on biofuels. Mercedes has recently been letting European journalists sample some of these new powertrains at a test facility in Spain.

The F700 concept that debuted last fall in Frankfurt is powered by a turbocharged DiesOtto engine. The DiesOtto is Mercedes' branding for a combined HCCI and spark ignition engine that provides nearly the same efficiency as a diesel without the need for the expensive after-treatment systems. This and conventional diesel engines can run on biofuels and Mercedes hopes to launch the DiesOtto in production by 2010. Mercedes is also currently field testing electrically-driven vehicles with both batteries alone and fuel cells each of which they also plan to launch at the beginning of the decade. While it may well be that all Mercedes models in 2015 will be capable of running petroleum free, the reality is that many - if not most - will still be using fossil fuels much of the time. That may come in the form of coal for electricity, natural gas reformed into hydrogen, or petroleum fuels blended with biofuels. But you have to start somewhere.

[Source: The Sun]

We already knew about Nissan's X-trail running on hydrogen, so this might not come as a surprise, but Nissan's partner Renault has launched the fuel-cell Scénic ZEV H₂ prototype. This compact people carrier improves the X-trail's performance and almost matches the numbers of a regular car: maximum speed is 160 km/h (about 100mph) and it's got a range of 350 km (200 miles) thanks to a 350 bar-pressurized tank which can contain up to 3.7 kg of H₂. Renault stated that this tank was ready for 700 bar pressure, which would extend the range to 500 km (330 mi).

Nissan supplied the fuel cell, the tank and the lithium-ion battery, while Renault's engineers prepared the Scénic's floor to be able to admit them. This meant that the car got 6 cm (2.5 in) taller, but overall interior space, including trunk space, was preserved. You can watch a video (in French) here.

[Source: Autoplus]

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Unveiled at the Tokyo Motor Show last fall, the Mazda Premacy Hydrogen RE hybrid is about to make its on-the-road debut in Japan. Mazda announced that the Japanese Ministry of Land Infrastructure and Transport (MLIT) has granted permission to test the hydrogen- and gas-powered minivan on public roads. The new rotary engine and hybrid powertrain in the Premacy Hydrogen RE gives the vehicle more power (40 percent more, compared to the old setup) and offers a range of 200 km (124 miles). All of this makes Mazda confident it can complete road trials and begin commercially leasing the vehicle during fiscal 2008. The hydrogen car uses a plant-based biofabric for some of the seat covers and door trim. G8 Hokkaido Toyako Summit attendees can get a view of Mazda's hydrogen rotary vehicles (the Premacy and RX-8) during next months' event. More details after the break.

Lotus Engineering is continuing to move aggressively into the realm of greener transportation. This week two different consortia of which Lotus is a part were awarded development contracts by the UK Government Technology Strategy Board. The first of the two projects is the Zero Emission London Taxi that we reported on last month. The government money will be used to help with the commercialization of fleets of fuel cell powered taxis in London by 2012.

The other project, dubbed Limo-Green, involves developing a hybrid drive Jaguar sedan. The description of this car is fairly vague, mentioning an advanced drive motor, small battery pack and an auxiliary power unit for sustained cruising. It sounds like it might be an extended range electric vehicle but with a relatively small battery for only minimal EV-only range. Lotus is developing the APU as a small engine with high thermal efficiency and power output. This could be an interesting project to watch. The Lotus press release is after the jump.

Quantum has been working on adding hydrogen capability to the Norwegian infrastructure, both through hydrogen stations and converted hydrogen Priuses. In the U.S., Quantum is also working on plug-in hybrids for California's South Coast AQMD. Last week, Quantum Fuel Systems Technologies Worldwide announced it will now be working on new advanced hybrid powertrains for EDAG and IISI. Who? Glad you asked.

IISI is the International Iron and Steel Institute, which has an automotive group, and EDAG is the Engineering + Design AG. The two are involved in the Future Steel Vehicle program, which hopes to find new, lightweight steel autobody concepts that are designed to work well with new vehicle powertrains, be they plug-in hybrids or hydrogen fuel cell. Quantum's task is develop the powertrains (advanced lithium-ion battery system and controls) with partner Advanced Lithium Power Inc. All of these concepts are meant to show that old-school steel is not dead yet (in fact, I heard it's going for a walk). Don't think the Rocky Mountain Institute will be in favor of that. Details after the jump.

Honda has officially kicked off production of the FCX Clarity fuel cell car in Tochigi, Japan. As the first cars began to roll down the line today some of the first customers were on hand to receive ceremonial keys to the cars that they will start receiving next month. Car number 1 will go to film producer Ron Yerxa sometime in July. Honda CEO Takeo Fukui announced the first five customers at a ceremony at the first dedicated fuel cell vehicle factory in the world. Along with Yerxa, Jon Spallino, Jim Salomon, Laura Harris, and Jamie Lee Curtis and her filmmaker husband Christopher Guest will be getting Claritys. Spallino was the first retail customer of the original FCX and, along with his wife, has been driving a fuel cell car for three years now.

During the ceremony, Power Honda Costa Mesa (Costa Mesa), Honda of Santa Monica (Santa Monica) and Scott Robinson Honda (Torrance) were named as the first part of the network of dealers providing sales and service support for the fuel cell vehicle fleet. For Spallino, the new Clarity will certainly be a huge step up from the original FCX. The new car has been designed from the ground up as a fuel cell vehicle and everything has been optimized for this application. The aluminum-framed car weighs in at only 3528lbs and the new vertical flow fuel cell stack is small enough to reside in the center tunnel of the car and provide a 270 mile range. Honda plans to deliver about 200 Claritys to U.S. and Japanese customers in the next couple of years.

Related:

• First Drive: 2009 Honda FCX Clarity, world's first series production fuel cell car
• First Drive: 2009 Honda FCX Clarity on the road
• AutoblogGreen Q&A: Honda's Stephen Ellis talks about hydrogen, Part 1
• AutoblogGreen Q&A: Honda's Stephen Ellis on hydrogen, Part 2

[Source: Honda]

If you didn't know, Sergio Marchionne is Fiat's CEO. In a recent interview in the French-speaking Swiss media outlet L'Hebdo, he spoke about the bank crisis, Switzerland's politics and his life in Switzerland. But he also talked about the car of the future, that is, the car of the near future.

Mr. Marchionne is a firm believer that the most realistic and available solution to reduce car pollution is reducing engine size. This agrees with Fiat's new policy on smaller turbo-charged engines, called T-Jet, and also the latest iteration of the common-rail JTD diesels. Speaking about other green car technologies, he acknowledges the benefit possible from hybrid powertrains, but believes that they're complex and expensive, and therefore more suitable for expensive cars. Regarding hydrogen, he stated that it isn't expected to be ready until 2020, but he finds it will be a real revolution once the technology is viable.

[Source: L'Hebdo (thanks to Jeroen for the tip)]

There is no silver bullet to kill the oil werewolf. How many times have we heard that line (well, without the werewolf part)? A lot, and Mercedes issued a press release today that pretty much takes that one idea and goes on to explain at length how Daimler AG is going about loading all their weapons in the war against oil dependency (ok, ok, I'll stop with this metaphorical nonsense now).

As longtime readers will know, Mercedes (like most automakers) is working on a variety of technologies to reduce fuel consumption. The tri-star brand has got DiesOtto (aka HCCI); lithium-ion batteries in upcoming production cars (the S400 BlueHybrid); and all those BlueTEC and BlueEFFICIENCY vehicles. Daimler's announcement today is about the company's "Road to the Future," and it sums up these various technologies (and more, like fuel cells) while talking about the idea of modular application. That is, future MB vehicles could include multiple green technologies (or parts of each) to create vehicles that Daimler is happy with "depending upon vehicle class, usage profile and customer requirements," as eMercedes-Benz put it. All in all, Mercedes isn't announcing anything new today, but they are saying that they've got a broad plan to make future vehicles as clean as possible. That's as close to a silver bullet as we're likely to see.