While the latest automotive trend has been to continue perfecting electric vehicles and battery technology, General Motors, among many other automakers, has been busy engineering fuel cell applications.
GM first became serious when it signed into a co-partnership with Honda in 2013, which has reportedly been very successful thus far.
The latest news on GM’s fuel-cell front is Automotive News reporting the automaker will supply a fuel cell vehicle for the United Stated Army to begin testing its application in the field.
According to the report, Mark Reuss, GM global product chief, told investors last month the company had signed “a multi-year contract to build and demonstrate a fuel cell reconnaissance vehicle” for the U.S. Army Tank Automotive Research, Development and Engineering Center.
GM spokesperson, Dan Flores, would not comment on the particular vehicle the fuel cell would be applied to, but stated more information should be available soon.
“We hope to release more details about the collaboration in the near future,” Flores said.
Reuss stated the fuel cell technology is completely GM, and has no linkage to the work it and Honda have engineered in the separate partnership.
“[The vehicle] will be based on our current fuel cell development program, on our current stack. It will show the unique advantages our proven fuel cell technology can offer in an all-terrain tactical application,” he stated.
GM has already signed a deal to provide as many as 55,000 Duramax turbodiesel V8 powertrains for the U.S. Army for the upcoming Joint Light Tactical Vehicle, or JLTV, which will replace the aged Humvee.
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