gjm

Selling a Merc 500SL. Had over 40 enquiries. All questions have been answered. (Half or so have been from Australia...) No-one has quibbled about the price. No-one has viewed. Still for sale.

9/10ths of no use to me, but great to see and indy setting up. (y) Wishing you every success.

We've talked about development of fuel cells for cars, and the issues (BMW and others) will face. The strength required of the hydrogen container typically dictates a specific shape, and that's something requiring significant R&D. Other issues have been the transportation of hydrogen, somethng which could be overcome by producing the hydrogen locally, on a smaller scale. That has also raised questions of ability and efficiency. A new development may have changed the picture. An easily produced composite of gallium and aluminum creates aluminum nanoparticles that react rapidly with water at room temperature, yielding large amounts of hydrogen. The gallium is easily recovered for reuse after the reaction, and testing has shown the reaction yields 90% of the hydrogen that could theoretically be produced from the reaction of all the aluminum in the composite. The process doesn’t require any energy input, and it bubbles hydrogen like crazy. The reaction of aluminum and gallium with water works because the gallium removes the passive aluminium oxide coating, allowing direct contact of aluminum with water. Transport of the gallium/aluminium is very, very easy and presents no significant risk.

Miss M follows 'Ologies'. Having spent time with her on a roadtrip, listening to some, I can see why. Very interesting.

Used car prices, generally, are on an up.

I post a lot on there, and sometimes I can' see some of the pics. And then they come back again...

That's perhaps why the collaboration of a number of engineering experts have taken as long as they have to develop a solution?

An update to the original post. BMW and Bosch, leading the FlatHyStor group, is working on a flat hydrogen tank, making it less bulky than current storage solutions, which will help with development of more comfortable and usable vehicles. EVs now often have the batteries forming part of the floor of the vehicle, instead of a more blocky installation, and the plan is for the hydrogen tank to occupy a similar space and to fit in the car underbody, between the axles. BMW presented the iX5 Hydrogen in mid-2021, with market launch due later this year. This has two tanks - one where the transmission tunnel would usually be, and one under the rear seats This is obviously a development of the existing X5 platform, rejigged to suit a hydrogen fuel cell, and is not designed specifically around the hydrogen fuel cell and storage potential. On the other side of the world Toyota, Honda and Hyundai are heavily involved in developing cars using hydrogen-powered fuel cells. Hyundai are also working on other vehicles including buses and lorries/trucks.

A properly special car, but at a price. And it's still some way shy of perfect. Rego quoted is inaccurate - the pic does show what may have been the correct plate, but it's been reassigned. trademe.co.nz/a/motors/cars/bmw/m/listing/3468849854

It's an option! May even be useful or interesting. If I do go for a Japanese import I may give it a chance in it's native language before getting involved in changing stuff. Would be nice to sort bluetooth music - many of the slightly older cars have bluetooth phone calling, but won't play music.

I had quite literally just found that one. Takes car of infotainment (TV doesn't work, but I don't normally watch TV while driving...) Leaves the instrument cluster to be sorted.

In my search for a company car at a reasonable price, the potential for a Lexus IS350 has come up. So many are Japanese imports (it would be thoroughly, independently checked) and that means the dash and centre display are going to be in Japanese. Does anyone know of a sensible and economic approach to changing this, other than buying replacement NZ market items and fitting them?

Still needs hydrogen, but the production and storage can be localised to the production environment. No distribution required. ✔️