Hydrogen Cars

New York Times technology writer David Pogue takes a look at BMW's new hydrogen cars:

BMW has the first fleet of hydrogen-powered cars (100, a quarter of which are in the U.S.). Other car companies, of course, are experimenting with hydrogen as fuel, but these 100 cars aren’t hand-built prototypes or concept cars; they were factory built like any other BMW model, which is a significant milestone.

Anyway, the advantage of hydrogen cars is that they don’t pollute. The only thing coming out of their tailpipe is pure water vapor. In fact, each audience member was given a bottle of bottled water–whose label, instead of “Evian” or “Dasana,” was “EXHAUST.” (Dr. Ochmann took a swig from it to make the point.)

I was surprised to learn that the technology for these cars was this far along. They are still a long way off, but it can be done. And as Pogue says, eventually it will have to be done.