Originally published November 15 2005
Mazda unveils hydrogen-electric hybrid in Tokyo
by Mike Adams, the Health Ranger, NaturalNews Editor
The Mazda5 was unleashed at the Tokyo Car Show and allowed consumers to see a vehicle that would allow them to switch between two power sources: Hydrogen and electricity.
At the Tokyo motor show, Mazda shows an unique concept version of their MPV - the Mazda5.
The car is driven by a hydrogen and electrical hybrid.
The concept car shown on the motor show uses a hybrid engine: The car can run either on a hydrogen powered rotary engine (which has only water as a waste product when it runs) or electricity (which doesn't pollute at all).
The user can switch between the two power sources.
It is going to be quite a while before we see anything like this in full-blown production, not only because the technology is relatively expensive, but also because Hydrogen isn't available as easily as the alternatives.
Hydrogen engines is nothing new to Mazda, however - three years ago, the company showed a petrol-and-hydrogen hybrid Mazda RX-8 to the world.
Rumour has it that this hybrid RX-8 vehicle will go on sale in Japan over the next year.
When running on hydrogen, the RX-8 only has half the amount of power as when it runs on petrol.
Of course, "only" is a misnomer: even when running on hydrogen, it has more than 100 brake horsepower to play with: more than enough for most of us.
As the different hybrid drives get launched, it will be interesting to see how the various manufacturers react and which technology they choose.
The oil prices and customer demand will ultimately dictate which technology wins the battles, but hydrogen has long been seen as one of the most viable alternatives when our oil supplies start getting very scarce.
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