Imagining a Hydrogen-Powered Lexus LFA-h

Posted by Kevin on March 8th, 2012

An enterprising filmmaker has created this rather convincing mock commercial for a hydrogen-powered Lexus LFA-h:

Simon Brown, a recent graduate of the American Film Institute Conservatory, managed to fool at least one website with his video, and may only be a few years ahead of his time — here’s a quote from recent Bloomberg story about Toyota fuel-cell vehicles:

Toyota Motor Corp, the world’s largest seller of hybrid vehicles, wants to be able to supply thousands of hydrogen fuel-cell vehicles annually in the next decade in anticipation of demand for petroleum-free autos.

“We are preparing to be able to produce tens of thousands per year in the 2020s,” Didier Leroy, head of Toyota’s European operations, said in prepared remarks in Geneva. The Toyota City, Japan-based automaker hasn’t yet detailed the price or marketing plans for fuel-cell cars or set a global sales target, said John Hanson, a spokesman for the company’s U.S. unit.

[Source: Simon Brown]

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Comments
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    Crux
  • March 8, 2012
( hydrogen powered 600hp V10 ) hahaha I LOVE it! 
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Sweet ad! BD
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    Tech26
  • March 8, 2012
Nice video, but hydrogen is a terrible waste of energy. It doesn't occur on its own naturally and it takes energy to separate it from carbon or oxygen molecules. Then you have to use more energy to either compress it or cool it down to -423 degrees F for storage on the vehicle. It is much more efficient to put that energy into a battery pack from the start and use it in a battery electric vehicle. 
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it takes several hours to charge a battery, it takes a few minutes to refuel a hydrogen car
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      Tech26
    • March 8, 2012
    I can charge a battery while I sleep from an existing outlet in my home and never have to worry about trying to find a hydrogen station.
    Q
    if your out of battery in the middle of the road, you would wish it was hydorgen
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      Tech26
    • March 9, 2012
    First off, I have never run out of gas and I think it unlikely that I would run out of battery charge. There's this nice feature on just about every car ever made that tells you how much gas or charge you have left before needing to refuel. Let's say I do run out of charge and I have a relatively cheap 12 volt power inverter on hand. Any car passing by could give me enough juice to make it to the nearest outlet. If I'm driving a hydrogen powered car someone with a tank full of compressed or liquid hydrogen would have to stop and give me some. So to summarize; no, I wouldn't wish I had a hydrogen car if I ran out of battery in the middle of the road. I'd be waiting for a tow truck or some specialized hydrogen refueling truck to help me.
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      eric
    • March 9, 2012
    easy for u to say when u dont live in a dense metropolis with a lot of apartment buildings..dont forget about us...how are we going to do that?
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      Tech26
    • March 9, 2012
    As the technology spreads large cities will most likely install charging stations that look like parking meeters. Or there will be quick charge stations similar to todays gas stations.
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If it's a fuel cell and not a combustion type like the Hydrogen 7, then it shouldn't make any noise. lol Besides the annoying whining...
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I remember Hydrogen can directly powered a engine , because in my mind there's a BMW V12 is powered by Hydrogen ... so maybe Hydrogen-powered LFA is possible , just not as good as 600hp , and should be called LFA-H2O . XD
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    jonathan
  • March 9, 2012
I seriously doubt that hydrogen is going to serve as fuel for automobiles.  There's no hydrogen infrastructure and without millions of hydrogen-fueled vehicles, there is no reason to build that infrastructure.  Besides, IF hydrogen comes to automobiles, it will be piped through a fuel cell—NOT burned in a V-10.  The car shown in this movie would have a range of like 10 miles. In fact, even though the market does not currently agree with me, I think the future of cars is some variation on the Volt—an electric vehicle with a gasoline back-up to get you home in an emergency.  This bridge technology would make travel costs reasonable even if gas prices were $15 / gallon.  The Volt is a great idea and if someone like Toyota were to build it, it would be a hit.   I can see it now—the hybrid drivers arguing technological superiority with the extended-range EV drivers.  May the person with the most expensive Birkenstocks win.

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