That is not to say there has been no progress in the hydrogen direction; a number of vehicles have been produced that use some form of hydrogen technology, but the huge hurdle that is expense still prevents it from becoming viable. And the even bigger hurdle of little more than barebones infrastructure still has not been resolved.
Nissan acknowledges that price is still a hurdle, which is why their next hydrogen model will either be a sports or luxury car. This hikes the pricing into a range where people who can dig deep anyways will be more likely to buy.
The decision regarding whether or not the car will be built will be made sometime early in 2009 and if given the green, the car will likely be released in 2014. While their fuel cell technology may be quite promising, there is still the massive issue of infrastructure.
Our take? Quite frankly, hydrogen fuel cell technology faces one final hurdle that might be its deathblow, or at least be enough to have it shelved: competition from electric motors. Fortunately, for Nissan they aren’t putting all their eggs in one basket, unlike some other automakers that shall not be named.
via Motortrend