5 Points on Fuel Cell Vehicles, EVs Free from Coal and Nuclear

Did you know that hydrogen fuel cell vehicles are actually very fast charging electric vehicles? Not plug-in vehicles, but fuel-cell powered.

There are five pieces of the puzzle about hydrogen fuel cell vehicle technologies that are good to understand: a tank that stores hydrogen; a fuel-cell stack that converts hydrogen and oxygen into heat and water, creating electricity; lithium-ion batteries that store the electricity; a power unit that controls the flow of electricity to the electric motors that propel the vehicle; and unlike a battery-powered vehicle that can take six, seven, eight or more hours to recharge, a hydrogen refill takes about 3.5 minutes.

Another interesting fact about electric vehicles: a new study by a nonprofit called the California Center for Sustainable Energy recently found that 40% of consumers who own the all-electric Nissan Leaf also have solar panels on their homes. That is a really something, especially considering the fact that some observers are very nervous about electric vehicles being charged by kilowatts coming from coal- or nuclear-powered electricity plants.