When we hear the words "hydrogen highway," we can't help but think about the California initiative to build hydrogen fueling stations in that state. Crown Equipment Corporation, based in New Bremen, Ohio, has announced that the "Hydrogen Highway Leads to New Bremen." The reason is a $1m state grant from the Ohio Department of Development and Ohio's Third Frontier Commission to research hydrogen fuel cells for the company's lift trucks. It seems that fork lifts are really the dark horse in the fuel cell race, with announcements like this and this not exactly rare. Heck, even the President is a big fan.

Crown's million will be used to address "the technical and commercial barriers to the application of available battery replacement fuel cell power packs in industrial lift trucks" through a study of how fuel cell lifts will be made useful in the warehouse. As Crown President Jim Dicke III said in a statement, all those heavy batteries in current lift trucks provide a nice counterweight to whatever is being lifted. Swap those lead acids out for a light fuel cell, and what happens when you try to life a pallet of books? Still, Dicke and others are confident that fuel cell lift trucks are the future. They're not as sexy as the FCX Clarity or the Provoq, but they're probably going to be available much sooner.

[Source: Crown Equipment Corporation]

Move over Honda Civic hybrid and Toyota Camry hybrid! If these videos from the 2007 Tokyo Motor Show are any indicators, the new hybrids coming out in the near future are going to be amazing. The video above is loud without much information other than CR-Z stands for compact renaissance zero but, hey, it's from a car show, what do you expect? Below the fold is a more informative video about the CR-Z. Also below the fold is a video all about the Toyota Crown hybrid concept.

[Source: YouTube]