GM has dropped its trademarks for Surus and S Surus, originally expected to be used in conjunction with The General’s hydrogen fuel cell vehicle technology. As GM Authority covered way back in 2017, the trademark filings were originally made on September 28th, 2017 for use in “rolling chassis for fuel cell vehicles.” The filings included the Surus name, as well as a logo and stylized text.
Now, however, the Surus trademark has been abandoned “because no Statement of Use or Extension Request timely filed after Notice of Allowance was issued,” per the United States Patent and Trademark Office (USPTO). The trademark, tagged with serial number 87626121, was officially abandoned on November 11th, 2024.
GM’s interest in fuel cell technology has been ongoing for quite some time now, dating all the way back to 1966 with a concept dubbed the Electrovan, a two-seater vehicle motivated by an early PEM hydrogen fuel cell powertrain. The Electrovan had a top speed of 70 mph and a range of 120 miles, carrying only two seats for passengers, as well as large hydrogen and oxygen tanks in the rear.
In the years since, GM has developed far more sophisticated fuel cell technology, declaring in 2023 that its Hydrotec fuel cell tech was ready for commercial deployment. Hydrotec is primarily designed for heavy-duty commercial vehicles and work trucks, such as mining vehicles and Class 8 trucks. Late last year, GM and Piston Automotive announced plans to construct a new hydrogen fuel cell manufacturing plant in Detroit, which, if completed, will become GM’s first standalone facility dedicated to hydrogen fuel cell production.
For readers who may be unaware, hydrogen fuel technology uses hydrogen gas to generate electricity, which can then be used to power a vehicle’s electric motor. Rather than burning carbon-based fuels like gasoline or diesel, hydrogen fuel cells create electricity through a chemical reaction between hydrogen and oxygen, with water resulting as the only emission, making hydrogen-powered vehicles a potentially cleaner alternative to traditional fossil fuels.
Comment
For the last five years I knew that Hydrogen would not work for passenger vehicles but always thought on Mega Huge earth movers and semi trucks would work.
Now, Tesla is about to produce 50K Semi Trucks a year and if you know anything about that Industry that is a lot.
Then you see heavy earth movers moving to batteries as well and you wonder what is the future for Hydrogen?
Maybe Airplanes?