Re:The case for hydrogen-powered cars
by unknown_apostle on Saturday April 21, 2018 @08:11AM
(#16891135)
Not sure if hydrogen cars are the future. But at the least, for a few years, they will run side by side with BEVs. Definitely in the form of buses and garbage trucks.
That's why I'm currently quite fond of platinum as a speculative investment. Fuel cells require quite a bit of platinum. Yet platinum has rarely been cheaper relative to other commodities like gold. I think because the market is discounting a decline in diesel engines and maybe because of recycling. (Even though platinum has been more expensive than gold even before catalysts were common.)
In addition, platinum deserves to receive a geopolitical risk premium. 80% of the world's platinum is mined (at a loss!) in South Africa, which is prone to intense labor disputes and looking less attractive every day. And the next big producer is Russia. Yet above ground stock piles have declined in the past decade.
In the 1+ year that I've been in platinum, it hasn't been a success. The market just remains comatose. But we'll see :-)
Re:The case for hydrogen-powered cars
by ianai on Saturday April 21, 2018 @08:48AM
(#16891238)
Platinum is also something like 3 orders of magnitude rarer in the crust than gold. What it’s value needs is a use case. Gold appears in many more places than the one or two places platinum does.
That's why I'm currently quite fond of platinum as a speculative investment. Fuel cells require quite a bit of platinum. Yet platinum has rarely been cheaper relative to other commodities like gold. I think because the market is discounting a decline in diesel engines and maybe because of recycling. (Even though platinum has been more expensive than gold even before catalysts were common.)
In addition, platinum deserves to receive a geopolitical risk premium. 80% of the world's platinum is mined (at a loss!) in South Africa, which is prone to intense labor disputes and looking less attractive every day. And the next big producer is Russia. Yet above ground stock piles have declined in the past decade.
In the 1+ year that I've been in platinum, it hasn't been a success. The market just remains comatose. But we'll see :-)