Migration to Alternative Fuels and Powertrains

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 13 E-450 H₂ICE shuttle buses on the road in North America. These E-450 shuttle buses use a 6.8-liter supercharged Triton V10 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 California and Pennsylvania. Our H₂ICE buses formerly located in Detroit, Las Vegas, Pennsylvania and Missouri have returned to Ford after successfully completing their fleet evaluations. At year-end 2009, our H₂ICE fleet had successfully logged 332,000 miles in operation.

H₂ICEs still face considerable challenges. Like all hydrogen-powered vehicles, H₂ICEs are limited by fuel storage, 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. The vehicles are also still very expensive. However, if these problems can be overcome, H₂ICEs 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.