Hydrogen electric racing: huff and puff?

From Detroit comes an announcement of a racing series for electric vehicles powered by hydrogen fuel cells and involving leading car manufacturers. Supposedly, it's only a couple of years away. But unless its proponents know a whole lot more than they're saying, it's hard not to see it as a load of hot air in that time frame.

We have been following moves towards "greener" motorsport in recent weeks and it's a subject in which we will continue to take great interest. An announcement was made in Detroit this month about the formation of the Hydrogen Electric Racing Federation, which told us it was unveiling "The Future of Racing" with plans for competition between electric vehicles powered by hydrogen fuel cells.

HERF describes itself as "a new racing organization dedicated to helping the world's leading automobile manufacturers accelerate the development of hydrogen fuel cell-powered electric vehicles through sanctioned competition". A series is supposedly planned to start, presumably in the US, in 2009, with more races, including international events, in 2010 and 2011.

We have seen and heard lots of announcements in motor racing over many years, but rarely -- if ever -- have we seen something so long on puffery and so short on substance.

For the record, here's the gist of what HERF president and chief executive Peter M. DeLorenzo, the founder of autoextremist.com and described by his spin doctors as "a long-time auto industry opinion leader and influential motor sport expert", had to say: "We are at the dawn of a new age of propulsion for the automobile. From this day forward, we will see internal combustion engines in automobiles inevitably give way to electric power sources. And whether these take the form of electric vehicles with an internal combustion engine (ICE) assist, full electric plug-in vehicles, or electric vehicles powered by hydrogen fuel cells -- we are at the crossroads of the future of the automobile as we know it. The time has come for the automobile industry to embrace the future vigorously -- and in no uncertain terms.

"The concept of racing hydrogen fuel cell-powered machines is unprecedented and historic, simply because for the first time in many, many years, racing will undertake a key role in the development of radical new technologies for production vehicles that are still on the horizon. With the electrification of the automobile at hand, racing needs a new idea. It is time for the automobile industry to take its advanced research away from the reassuring glare of the computer screen and out of the sterile environment of the research laboratory, and let innovation and technical creativity run free and unfettered on the racetrack -- with the most advanced automotive technology in the world -- hydrogen electric fuel cell-powered vehicles.

"It is time to press the 'reset' button for racing. Not only to usher in a new era of creativity and innovation to the sport, but also to enable racing to take its rightful place again as the principal conduit for the transference of advanced technologies and innovations directly to our future production vehicles.

"The onset of the electrification of the automobile is presenting us with a rare, perhaps once-in-a-lifetime opportunity to accelerate the development schedule of the hydrogen electric fuel cell-powered vehicle, while at the same time allowing us to reinvent and reposition the sport of racing to be more relevant than it has been in decades.

"I'm confident that we will look back on this historic day and see it for the truly momentous event that it was -- the day when the Future of Racing was born."

It will indeed be interesting to take a look in two years time and see whether DeLorenzo has put any flesh on these very bare bones.