Green Options

I recently had a chance to ride along in a Mazda RX-8 Hydrogen RE at Eco-Products 2008 in Japan — a green event held for three days in Tokyo.

Mazda RX-8 Hydrogen RE and Mercedes-Benz Smart on road.

Several green vehicles were on hand at the event for visitors to take on approximately 10 minute rides. The cars you could pick from were: the Toyota FCHV-adv (fuel cell), the Nissan Clean Diesel X-TRAIL 20GT, the Subaru Plug-in Stella Concept (EV), the Audi Cabriolet A4 S-line 3.0 TDI (Diesel), the Mazda RX-8 Hydrogen RE, the Mitsubishi i MiEV (EV), the Mercedes-Benz Smart, and the Velotaxi.

I chose the Mazda RX-8 Hydrogen RE because I thought sitting in that type of car must be a very rare opportunity. I also wanted an up close real-world experience with a car that uses a rotary engine and can switch back and forth between gasoline and hydrogen fuel.

Would owning 1/1000th of a Community Co-op Hydrogen Station be worth $2,000.00 to you? Greg Blencoe, CEO of Hydrogen Discoveries, Inc. thinks it would be, and he’s come up with an ingenious idea that might help “fuel” the hydrogen station infrastructure.

Greg Frenette, a lead engineer at Ford Motors, said last week that it may take at least 20 years before hydrogen-powered cars become widely available because obtaining the fuel is so costly and difficult. But the latest news from the Reuters Global Environment Summit is that these zero emissions cars could become a reality in California very soon as the state plans to build out “Hydrogen Cities” to support the hydrogen car industry.