"Steve Firth" wrote in message
. ..
Jon Porter wrote:

One of my clients is *the* leader in the development of small fuel
cells. Even they are not so stupid as to claim that they will be on
the
market by the end of this year.

Would that be AEA Technology, Hitachi Industries, Siemens, Mercedes,
BMW,
NASA. Maybe General Motors, Toyota, Ford, (plus a couple of very
impressive
East European companies who I will not try and spell!)
I'm sure they have all put all those millions in just to see it wasted
but
of course you know better than them.

No, none of those.

And I'm sure that if they don't manage to launch their product this year
(which they won't) that they won't have wasted their research money.
They should be able to sell their product eventually.

You really should read what's written, not respond to what you think was
written.

--

I was responding to your claim to have a "client" that is *the* leader in
the development of small fuel cells. In view of the amount of research
taking place and the money to be made I think I can confidently say that not
even the companies involved, let alone you, know who *the* leader is in this
field of technological development.
I notice you have failed to respond to the other points made, in my
previous post, concerning alternative methods of hydrogen production. (for
the larger cells of course), revisions in vehicle design, etc. I'm sure
"your client" would be aware of these processes, IF they were *the* leader
in this field and aware of fuel cell development generally and not just the
smaller ones which tend to use methanol of course.
However in response to your rebuttal of Steve's claim at least one
manufacturer IS claiming to be going to market in 2004 with a fuel cell
powered laptop, three others to my knowledge are claiming by 2005. Life of
8-10 hours per charge, cost anticipated to be about 20% more than
conventional batteries. The first mentioned has already shipped a batch of a
thousand or so for market testing, and it's only January! Perhaps your
*client* needs to get a move on.