Hydrogen Internal Combustion Engines (H2ICEs)

Ford was the first automaker to develop commercially available hydrogen-powered internal-combustion engines (H2ICEs), which use the same basic technology as gasoline-powered engines but run on hydrogen fuel. We view this as a possible bridge technology to hydrogen-powered fuel cells, because it is less expensive than fuel cells and uses existing engine manufacturing capability.

We currently have a fleet of 30 E-450 H2ICE shuttle buses on the road in North America. These E-450 shuttle buses use a 6.8-liter supercharged Triton V-10 engine with a hydrogen storage system equivalent to 29 gallons of gasoline. We have placed 10 of the H2ICE shuttles with the Canadian government in Vancouver, Prince Edward Island, Ottawa and Toronto in support of their vision for a hydrogen-based economy. We also have buses on the road in Orlando, Las Vegas, Detroit, California, Missouri and Pennsylvania. As of April 2008, our H2ICE fleet had successfully logged 200,000 miles in operation.

H2ICEs still face considerable challenges. Like all hydrogen-powered vehicles, H2ICEs are limited by fuel storage and fuel infrastructure issues and concerns about hydrogen safety. For example, current H2ICE vehicles have a driving range of 150 to 200 miles, due to fuel storage limitations. H2ICEs are also still very expensive. However, if these problems can be overcome, they have the potential to deliver significant environmental benefits including near-zero CO2 and other tailpipe emissions and 13 percent better fuel economy than traditional vehicles.