丰田氢动力车试驾报告

    最近在报道“氢气高速公路”（Hydrogen Highway）时我特别提到，几乎所有主要汽车厂商，从丰田（Toyota）到宝马（BMW），都计划几年内要推出氢动力汽车。想象一下一辆不是用电池而是用铂金燃料电池驱动的电动车，它将氢这种宇宙中最丰富的元素注入电池就能获得电力，驱动附着在车轮上的电机。

    现在这一前景看来似乎更加光明了，因为加州众议会（California Assembly）上周通过了一项议案，批准在未来十年间拨款2亿美元建造至少100座加氢站。州长杰瑞•布朗表示他将签署这项议案。它的理念是，100座加氢站这个规模足以让那些大品牌在加州销售这种新能源车。

    文章发表几周后，我就获得了一个机会，在康涅狄格州的瓦林福德试驾一辆丰田的氢动力样车——改装的汉兰达（Highlander）SUV，并且在美国东北部仅有的两座加氢站（另一个在纽约的肯尼迪机场）中的一座为这车补充燃料。

    驾驶氢动力车时，首先触动你的是车辆的静音和加速性能——它能释放很大的扭矩。这类车的零部件也比常规汽车要少——不再有引擎、昂贵的变速箱或传动系统——所以维修保养也会简单便宜得多。我试驾的这辆改装汉兰达加一缸氢能开300英里，而且四分钟不到就能加满。丰田量产版的全新氢动力车将在今年11月举办的东京汽车展上亮相。

    当我开到91号洲际公路的一个办公园区的加氢站时，我见到了拉里•摩尔斯洛普。他是Proton Onsite公司氢燃料系统的副总裁，就是这家公司在运营SunHydro加氢站。去年该公司共有13辆氢动力汉兰达可供使用，他表示：“这些车几乎没什么毛病。”在这个加氢站他解释道，现在加氢的价格大概是每加仑4美元，但一旦上了规模，价格就能降到3美元左右。

    这个加氢站是利用太阳能，通过所谓的水电解工艺来制氢的。它从装在屋顶的太阳能电池板获得电能，再用它从水里分解出氢。而加州现在的19座加氢站则是从天然气中提炼氢的，这种工艺更便宜——大概是每加仑3美元。

    使用太阳能、风能或其他再生能源生产氢的好处在于，与天然气相比，这种生产过程几乎不产生碳排放。所以这些汉兰达算是名副其实的零排放汽车，从它的排气管里排出的只有水蒸气而已。

    目前，SunHydro正在波士顿以外的地区建造第一座商用加氢站。这家公司的老板是汤姆•苏利文，他是靠创办硬木地板零售企业Lumber Liquidators发家的。他为什么要投身这一行呢？原来他是想引入氢这种替代能源让美国摆脱对石油的依赖，同时他也表示，这是件值得做的大好事。

    而他的难题也在于如何破除那个古老的先有鸡还是先有蛋的魔咒：在没有多少氢动力汽车之前，如何造很多加氢站呢？而如果没有加氢站，汽车厂商又为什么要卖氢动力车呢？总得有人开个先局吧。（财富中文网）

    译者：清远  

    When I last wrote about the hydrogen highway, I noted that just about every major car company, from Toyota (TM) to GM (GM) to BMW, was planning to launch a hydrogen-powered car within a few years. Think of an electric car that's powered not by a battery but by a platinum fuel cell. Pump hydrogen, the most abundant element in the universe, into the cell and electrons get stripped from the fuel providing a current that drives electric motors attached to your car's wheels.

    Now, that prospect seems even brighter as the California Assembly last week passed a bill that provides $200 million over the next 10 years to fund at least 100 hydrogen stations. Governor Jerry Brown indicated that he will sign it. The idea is that 100 hydrogen stations will create enough critical mass for the big automakers to sell their cars in the region.

    A few weeks after my article posted, I got the opportunity to drive a prototype of Toyota's hydrogen car, a modified Highlander SUV, in Wallingford, Conn. and to fill up at one of only two hydrogen stations in the northeast. (The other is at JFK airport in New York City.)

    What strikes you first when driving a hydrogen vehicle is the quiet and the acceleration -- it puts out lots of torque. These cars also have far fewer moving parts than other cars -- no engine, fancy transmission, or drivetrain -- so it will be much simpler and cheaper to maintain. The retrofitted Highlander I drove can travel 300 miles on a tank of hydrogen and takes less than four minutes to fill. The production version of Toyota's new hydrogen car will be unveiled at the Tokyo auto show in November.

    As I pulled up to the hydrogen filling station in an office park off Interstate 91, I met Larry Moulthrop, a vice president of hydrogen systems at Proton Onsite, the company that operates the SunHydro station. His company has been running 13 hydrogen Highlanders over the past year, and he says, "The cars have been working almost flawlessly." He explained how, at his company's SunHydro station, it costs about $4 a gallon equivalent to fill his car up, but at scale, he sees the price coming down to about $3 a gallon.

    The SunHydro station makes its hydrogen on site with solar power through a process called water electrolysis. It takes the electricity from the rooftop solar panels at its facility and uses it to strip out the hydrogen from the water. The 19 hydrogen stations that already exist in California use hydrogen made from natural gas, and that process is cheaper -- about $3 a gallon equivalent.

    The advantage of using solar, wind, or any renewable source of energy is that, compared to natural gas, almost no carbon is emitted in the making of the hydrogen. So you can truly call these Highlanders zero-emission cars. All that comes out of the tail pipe is water vapor.

    SunHydro is building its first commercial station outside of Boston. The company is owned by Tom Sulllivan, the entrepreneur who made his fortune starting Lumber Liquidators. Why is he doing it? He hopes to help break America's dependence on oil by introducing hydrogen as a viable alternative, and because, he says, it's the right thing to do.

    His challenge to beat the age-old chicken and egg problem: How can you have filling stations without hydrogen cars, and why would automakers sell a hydrogen car without a place to fill them up? Someone's got to blink first.