Does California Mandate For Alternative Fuel Vehicles Pose A Safety

Does California Mandate For Alternative Fuel Vehicles Pose A Safety Risk To Drivers

Recently, a mandate for greater vehicle fuel efficiency and more alternative fuel vehicles on the market was announced for the state of California. On January 27, 2012, the states Air Resources Board approved the Advanced Clean Cars Program, which sets limits on vehicle emissions for model years 2017 through 2025 and requires a greater number of zero-emission vehicles to be sold in California, among them hydrogen fuel cell cars. While the technologies for hybrid and electric plug-in vehicles are relatively established, the application of hydrogen as a transportation fuel is rather new, prompting concerns among consumers, safety advocates, and attorneys as to the risk of serious or fatal personal injury associated with the vehicles.

Under the Advanced Clean Cars program, new vehicles will be required to emit 34 percent fewer global warming gases and 75 percent fewer smog-forming emissions. The programs Zero Emissions Vehicle (ZEV) Regulation mandates that 15.4 percent of new vehicles on the market in 2025 emit no pollutants from their onboard power source; examples of such vehicles include those powered by electricity and hydrogen. To ensure that infrastructure is created to accommodate such vehicles, the regulation requires that hydrogen fueling stations are constructed throughout California.

Given that hydrogen fuel cell vehicles are still somewhat rare, many consumers, safety advocates, and attorneys are concerned about the risk of serious or fatal personal injury associated with them. The lightest and most common element in the universe, hydrogen gas is colorless, odorless, and tasteless. Although the National Aeronautics Space Administration (NASA) has used hydrogen as a fuel since the 1950s, it has only recently reached the commercial market in the form of the hydrogen fuel cell vehicle.

While on the outside hydrogen fuel cell vehicles are comparable to other vehicles, their interior components set them apart: a fuel cell stack converts hydrogen gas and oxygen into electricity, which is then sent to the electric motor; a tank stores the hydrogen gas at an extremely high pressure; and a high-output battery stores energy generated from regenerative braking, providing the electric motor with supplemental power.

Some of the major safety concerns with hydrogen fuel cell vehicles center around the possibility of a storage tank leak or the puncturing of the tank in an accident. Since hydrogen is very light, a small amount will fill up a large volume, so it is highly compressed in the vehicles storage tanks to save space. If a tank were to become ruptured in an accident, it could explode. When the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration (NHTSA) commissioned a study on the risks associated with the vehicle, researchers found that a large release of hydrogen or a rupture of the fuel container were the two primary safety concerns.

The risk of fire or explosion is not unique to hydrogen, however, as all fuels are combustible, a major source of their usefulness. Their propertiesand risksvary, which is why it is important that the federal government implement rigorous safety testing and standards for these environmentally friendly vehicles.

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