Element One
“The world’s first regional passenger plane powered by hydrogen-electric power is set to take to the skies as early as 2025, paving the way for a new generation of zero-emissions air travel. Designed to fly up to four passengers for distances between 500km to 5,000km, the Element One is described as a quiet, ultra-light, zero carbon aircraft “several orders of magnitude better” than battery-electric aircrafts”.
I love the name. Probably comes from the fact that H is the first element in the periodic table. Hydrogen on an aircraft is actually not that far-fetched. NASA used it as a rocket fuel for decades.
“At the commissioning of the 50th public refuelling station [in Potsdam Germany] H2 MOBLITY partners Linde and TOTAL celebrated [the event]”.
“Tesla Supercharging stations [..] take about 20 minutes to charge to 50%, 40 minutes to charge to 80%, and 75 minutes to 100%” Too slow. Hyundai Nexo, or Toyota Mirai, or Nikola will refuel under 5 minutes.
“No one has test-driven a hydrogen car for as long a distance as we have. From the South Korean capital city of Seoul to southeastern port city of Ulsan, we drove Hyundai Motors’ Nexo for over 400 kilometers on a single charge”.
Looks like a comfortable ride.
“I’m baffled by the car industry’s apparent reluctance to think more seriously about hydrogen as a replacement for petrol and diesel, H is the most abundant element in the universe, so we wouldn’t run out of it for about a billion years, and it’s clean too. A car powered by [HFC] produces nothing from its tailpipe but water [..] The motor industry would stop fiddling about with its pointless batteries and its hybrid-drive systems and get on the only road where there is actually a future for personal mobility. The hydrogen road”
Clarkson was the host of the popular car show Top Gear.