But the end of one hazardous profession became a springboard to the next, as Mitchell sold off his racing bikes and bought two electric-assist cargo-tricycles to become a zero-emission “eco-courier.”
The hydrogen cars take minutes to fill, instead of the several hours sometimes needed for EVs. The region’s four hydrogen-fuel stations are privately owned, so Mitchell is still on the hook for filling the cars at the pumps, at around $70 a pop, but he isn’t saddled with the costs of building more infrastructure. And in an industry where time is money, he also isn’t losing productivity while waiting for those Teslas to power up.
Then California governor Arnold Schwarzenegger gives the thumbs-up as he uses a hydrogen fuel pump to fill a Toyota fuel cell vehicle in Davis, California in 2004.But all the buzz, prototypes, presidential pronouncements, pilot projects and hydrogen promise have failed to produce a stampede of FCEV buyers, let alone a proliferation of corner hydrogen fuel stores across North America. As revolutions go, the hydrogen push has paced at a slow burn, but that doesn’t mean change isn’t coming.
Colin Armstrong, president and CEO of Vancouver-based HTEC, a hydrogen technology company, fills up his hydrogen fuel cell electric vehicle at an HTEC hydrogen station in North Vancouver. The company has five stations in total, four in BC, and one in Quebec City. Armstrong envisions building out a cross-Canada network of stations to fuel the hydrogen highway of the future.HTEC’s work is incented by B.
Twenty-five years later, airport runways are melting in the United Kingdom, while Europe wilts amid yet another so-called once-in-a-generation heatwave. Some problems can be stubbornly persistent, and grow progressively worse, while some solutions, such as hydrogen cars, can appear just as inviting as they were, well, three decades ago.Article content
Someone driving a FCEV on a cross-Canada road trip could fuel up in Quebec City, and roll to a dead stop 500 kilometres later for want of more hydrogen The hydrogen revolution may indeed, finally, be underway, but its progression will not be dictated by any one company’s desire to mass produce fuel cell cars, but by the HTECs of the industry’s ability to solve the missing infrastructure piece.