2010 World Cup Soccer Dropping the Ball on Hydrogen Vehicles

July 2, 2010 | By Hydro Kevin Kantola | Filed in: Fuel Cells.

I was reading an article about Singapore and China developing a hydrogen fuel cell hybrid bus to be used at the 2010 Youth Olympic Games that will take place this coming August.

Then it suddenly occurred to me, where are all of the hydrogen cars, vehicles and buses at the 2010 FIFA World Cup games? Back in 2008, I talked about how the South African government had invested $49 million for hydrogen fuel cell research.

I had also talked about how South Africa controls around 75 – 80-percent of the world’s platinum production, which means they can be a major player in the fuel cell marketplace.

It’s curious to me that a small venue like the 2010 Youth Olympic Games could feature hydrogen vehicles but the World Cup cannot. The Olympics have been doing a fine job putting hydrogen vehicles before the public.

The 2008 Beijing Summer Olympics in China and the 2010 Winter Olympics in Vancouver, Canada both shuttled passengers and dignitaries in hydrogen cars and vehicles. The upcoming 2012 London Summer Olympics will feature hydrogen fuel cell black taxi cabs.

Now, one might argue that perhaps South Africa doesn’t have the resources to build or bring hydrogen fueled cars into their nation for the 2010 World Cup. But, one would think that an organization such as Hydrogen South Africa could invite hydrogen automakers and fueling station companies just for this purpose.

If South Africa wants to position itself as a world player when it comes to selling platinum for fuel cells, then what better venue would there be than the FIFA World Cup? Too bad they dropped the ball on this one. They could have scored a goal with very little effort.


One comment on “2010 World Cup Soccer Dropping the Ball on Hydrogen Vehicles

  1. So People we know threw out the world Governments are eagerly and aggressively getting into Hydrogen fuels and fuel cells and the United States are told oh Battery is the end all.It is a great product not end all. Please I bet in the 1700’s 1800 ‘s 1900’s and 2010s this is tested and is to expensive. I am A Moderate Republican not a Incompetent legislator as so told to us by Tom Coburn R who has problems with 26 percent of Americans that trust Congress and Senate?. Please Batteries will not be the end all.We need cash for Florida to build Hydrogen highway Florida.Please we can we will get energy money to allow us to bring down our DEFICITS. Natural Gas Wind Hydrogen battery BIO-Fuels.
    We must stop fighting this we need groups to establish so we can save energy at home. Now State by State to allow alternatives to get open classrooms in schools or put the classes to become professional workers. Please stop the non-sense. We give 10 billion dollars a day to Afghanistan?? Vote for real help for Americans.No More Oil