GM Hydrogen Fuel Cell Fleet Accumulates 3 Million Miles
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A hydrogen fuel-cell-powered Chevrolet Equinox has reached 100,000 miles of real world driving. Through way renewable hydrogen, the vehicle has saved 5,260 gallons of gasoline, or $18,000 in fuel at $3.50 a gallon. The car is part of GM’s 119-vehicle Project Driveway Program, which has been running since 2007. The test fleet has accumulated nearly 3 million combined miles, accounting for 157,894 gallons of saved gasoline and $552,631 in avoided fuel cost.
Throughout its life span, the Fuel Cell Equinox operated as a fleet vehicle at Walt Disney Worlds studio in Burbank, Ca. It is now an engineering development vehicle, driven by several General Motors engineers.
According to Clean Energy Patent Growth Index, GM filed more fuel cell patents between 2002 and 2012 than any other automaker. The company is building a new Fuel Cell Development Laboratory in Pontiac, Mich. where the majority of future fuel cell development will take place.
GM also announced earlier this year two new fuel cell collaborations. In July, GM and Honda announced an agreement to co-develop a next generation fuel cell and hydrogen storage system, set to be ready for the 2020 time frame. More recently, in September GM announced it would expand its co-development of hydrogen fuel cell technology with the U.S. Army Tank Automotive Research, Development and Engineering Center.
Despite the milestone, GM still hasn’t launched a fuel cell vehicle in the marketplace. This should change, however, as their collaboration with Honda aims to bring a feasible solution to market by 2020.
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But Elon Musk calls these Bull Sh%t. But when you are a$$ deep invested in battery power I would be afraid of these too.
When the next happens transportation transition takes place, and it will, hydrogen will be the answer. I’ve been tracking GMs involvement in hydrogen front the beginning. By cooperation with another major hydrogen pioneer, as Honda is, the point from a to z has been made much shorter. GM will be in a great position.
With the enormous natural gas fields discovered in North America… hydrogen is a viable alternative, because natural gas is a great fuel for hydrogen. This will not only transform transportation, but transforming electrical generation as well.
I probably won’t see it, but the future is hydrogen… and the general will be in great shape. And if the general is is great shape, our beloved state of Michigan will be as well.
scott; The fact that he even commented on Hydrogen powered vehicles (unprompted even) indicates his concern. He should be concerned. Between Telsa and SpaceX, he’s in some fields where his hold on the market will only shrink with time and new competition.
I would recommend reading Autoweeks Dutch Mandells editorial on Elon and the Tesla bubble. He is the first journalist to speak the truth on some sensitive issues like a company with $20 billion invested and only having built and sold 20,000 cars. Then the next uncovinent issue is they have only one model, a SUV that is delayed and lost, a new model that may be here in 2017, no nation wide local dealer network., no major investment in better batteries. only 23 supercharge stations that do not fully charge in 30 min and a desperate attempt at swapping batteries at 8 supercharger stations in California and DC because they have no better battery coming short term.
To their credit they are selling emission credits but that is about all.
The reality is he proved what the large companies did not believe possible and that is to sell an electric car at $100,000. Now that he has proven it they are taking interest as it is easy to build cars like this if there is a segment of people that will buy them. Any one of the big players like GM, Toyota and BMW could do what he has done easily. The key thing he has done is market it right with great use of the web. GM could take Volt parts put them in a larger car with a similar large batter like the Model S and match or beat their numbers. GM could invest much more R+D and Wind Tunnel time in getting more out of the battery. The issue still remains the charge time and range anxiety.
Range Anxiety is real and the rental car companies have already seen it.
Anyways I contributed to some of the miles on the GM Fuel Cell cars and I liked what I drove. The real issues is fill time which is better than a electric charge but not as good as gasoline. Also the cost but in the right car that may not be a factor with what we have seen on the model S. We also would need more infrastructure for filling stations but we already have more of these sites than battery stations.
While Hydrogen is not ready for main stream I believe it still has a place at the table.
Scott… what kind of fuel was used?
From what I recall it was liquid hydrogen. The car is pretty similar to the Fuel Cells used by NASA in the space program to generate electricity.
It drove pretty much like a Volt but the power came from the fuel cell. It would spin the tires at launch like any other electric.
Thanks.
GM has been “testing” fuel cells for as long as I can remember — at least 20 years that I can count — and appear no closer to bringing one to market. This leaves me to wonder if Musk is correct.
Must has a car that has batteries that are really not much better than the GM cars from the 90’s either.
All he did is build a bigger car and put a bigger battery in.
The Hydrogen and Electric cars are here but the fact is gas is still relatively easy to get and cheap to buy and the cars that run on it are cheaper than these so called cars of the future.
As long as the cost of operation is low on the gas cars and the life style changes are needed to deal with the alternative fuels they both will be a slow growth market.
It’s difficult to find knowledgeable people in this
particular topic, but you sound like you know what you’re talking about!
Thanks