I had an opportunity to drive GM's Hydrogen Fuel Cell Chevy Equinox through their "Project Driveway". I thought I would give my impressions here. Mind you, I'm not a gear head; if anything, I'm more familiar with the manufacturing process for vehicles than cars themselves. However, I thought that this forum might find it interesting.

Quote :

"I had the opportunity to test drive a hydrogen fuel cell vehicle for the first time today in GM's "Project Driveway". The good people at GM took a Chevy Equinox and mounted a matured hydrogen fuel cell propulsion system into the vehicle. One word sums it up: wow. Seeing this vehicle has flipped around a lot of my beliefs about American automobile manufactures, and I just feel compelled to share some of my thoughts. 1) Technology Maturity - The biggest surprise I had was just how far along this technology was. When my friend and I went out to check out these vehicles, we were expecting finicky prototypes. What greeted us was a very mature vehicle far beyond the proof of concept stage, already on a fourth generation of the technology. While the engineer who was talking with us said that there were still a few small systems integration issues they were dealing with, the vehicle we drove was about 95% ready for production. For the demo vehicles, they took this new drive and simply dropped it into the existing Equinox designs right at the factory. I spoke with them about their production plans, and what surprised me was just how advanced the GM folks were in already planning manufacturing processes. The question isn't whether or not they could mass produce it but where in the market they were going to introduce the technology. (SUV? Compact? Malibu? Corvette?). 2) Revolutionary, not Evolutionary Jump - The vehicle I saw was clearly a revolutionary jump for the automarket. The fuel cell Equinox is a true electric vehicle whose propulsion is clearly from a 100% electric drive train. What amazed me was the huge reduction in moving parts going to this new technology; many of the moving components in a typical combustion engine or hybrid vehicle have disappeared entirely in these vehicles. I was absolutely amazed. Oh, and the exhaust? 100% water vapor. It pollutes about as much as my humidifier at home. I stood right behind a running vehicle and took a deep breath in. 3) No one killed the electric car, it's alive and well - Some of you may remember the GM EV1, the prototype electric car that was subsequently axed by GM. There were a lot of people who yelled that the GM had buried the technology and let it die. Yet when I saw the Equinox, I realized that this was far from the case. GM didn't drop the research that created the EV1. Instead, they've refined it dramatically, and the technology from that vehicle was matured into the system I saw today, a clear ancestor. Its obvious they took that technology and have developed a truly viable system. 4) GM Didn't Miss the Hybrid, They Skipped It - GM took a huge amount of flak from environmentalists and Congress for "missing" the hybrid boat. However, when I saw this vehicle, it was clearly obvious that GM didn't miss anything, they were simply skipping over the hybrid stop-gap to tackle the next generation. With this vehicle so close to market, its obivous that GM intended to go straight into the pure electric/fuel cell market and skip over the hybrid tech. You know that GM Volt, the plug-in hybrid? That's a stopgap measure for this vehicle. 5) Safety - Its pretty obvious that with hydrogen involved, people are going to be concerned about safety. Yet GM has obviously put a lot of effort into making their carbon-fiber tanks as durable as possible. My favorite test? The bonfire test: they literally tested their hydrogen tanks by throwing them into and cooking them in a giant bonfire. Another test uniquely American? The gunfire test where they shot up a tank multiple times (The fuel tanks have apparently passed both, a step up from our friend the combustion engine). 6a) Question Marks - GM has clearly developed a working set of fuel cell vehicles that can easily be moved into production in two or three years. The only question is whether or not we will have the hydrogen infrastructure to fuel these vehicles. Obviously, this is a HUGE question mark. We have hydrogen manufacturing in the United States, and there are clearly a lot of hydrogen fueling stations already built. However, whether we can manufacture hydrogen in a sustainable fashion is still in the air. They say that the tech is out there, but whether or not itis a working business model is a different question entirely. 6b) Also, I have to wonder WHY GM hasn't been advertising this project more vocally. From the demonstration today, its clear that they've got something BIG that's just about ready to go. We're talking about a true, revolutionary change. I can also see that the stuff President Bush said about a hydrogen economy wasn't a long-term pipe dream; there really was technology right there ready for deployment. 6c) Price is of course another question. They couldn't give me any information what kind of costs they were thinking since they couldn't give a final number of the production expenses without knowing what type of vehicle they'll finally put onto the market. Oh, and I'm sure you're wondering how the vehicle drove. It felt... like an SUV. Although the progressive breaking took some getting used to, the vehicle drove no differently than an internal combustion SUV. If anything, it drove even better than your typical SUV with excellent pickup. The vehicle does have a few quirks, particularly in that the engine actually requires a few seconds to "warm up" as the fuel cell is flooded with hydrogen and brought up to temp, but other than that, according to their engineer at least, the fuel cell Equinox beat the traditional Equinox in just about every performance measure minus weight. Overall, I was absolutely amazed by this demonstration. GM has a set of fully operational hydrogen fuel cell vehicles just ready for the manufacturing line. What they need is the market to sell them to. GM hasn't been behind in the technology curve, if anything, they're ahead of the game with something that could shift the paradigm. I just hope they don't fumble and are able to seize the market with this."

3/7/2009 1:31:21 PM

I should also add that they've made great strives in terms of range. They're right now at about 200 miles per fueling, but from talking with them, it seems they are pretty close to expanding that range by a significant amount. The engine we saw was a fourth generation design, but they're planning to use an even smaller and more efficient fifth generation design for production three years down the road.

3/7/2009 1:38:06 PM

What was wrong with electric cars again?

3/8/2009 11:58:38 AM

$texas

3/8/2009 2:18:32 PM

too bad GM is a day late and billions of dollars short.

Even if GM were to bring this vehicle to market tomorrow, I really don't see hydrogen production/infrastructure taking off in time it to do any good regarding GM's current financial position.

They didn't skip the hybrid, i've been reading about the volt for close to 5 years. They also have a hybrid malibu, tahoe, and silverado.

3/8/2009 4:18:33 PM

and escalade

3/8/2009 4:20:06 PM

words

GM is trading at $1.45

3/8/2009 9:43:28 PM

Quote :

"What was wrong with electric cars again?"

Talking with one of their engineers, they seem to believe that the necessary battery technology to create a solid electric vehicle with the range they desire is too far off. Thus, hydrogen appears to be the best bet without having to dramatically change the driving habits of most Americans.

Quote :

"Even if GM were to bring this vehicle to market tomorrow, I really don't see hydrogen production/infrastructure taking off in time it to do any good regarding GM's current financial position."

Probably not, though GM appears to be pushing Congress hard right now for an investment in hydrogen infrastructure optimistically in hopes of a 2013 release. You're right, it may not save GM from its current crisis, but GM may try to leverage both the Volt and the hydrogen fuel cell to prove to Congress that they're more than a simple monetary sinkhole. Even though I think that company as a whole is a sinking ship for other reasons, their research department seems to have made a tremendous amount of progress, and it would be a shame to see it scuttled.

Quote :

"They didn't skip the hybrid, i've been reading about the volt for close to 5 years. They also have a hybrid malibu, tahoe, and silverado."

Well, there was a lot of flak they took for supposedly being beaten by the Japanese to the hybrid market; GM looks like its in a catch up mode.

Anyways, in the end, I really was surprised at just how far along they were with their fuel cell technology. They're already working on a fifth generation, and their engineering team seems to have a pretty good grasp on manufacturing issues already.

3/8/2009 11:42:43 PM

I have worked with the NCSU EcoCAR project, which is going to be using the same basic electric motor from the Equinox. The battery technology just isn't there. You need huge stacks of those things to get 150-200 miles on a car with any weight.

3/9/2009 5:22:22 PM

the Honda Hydrogen Fuel Cell car's range is around 270+ per fill up and looks pretty sweet.

3/9/2009 5:26:26 PM

Thanks for posting this RedGuard.

This really is THE saving hope for GM. Hydrogen infrastructure really isn't terribly expensive to make these vehicles viable for the money makers: Enterprise and Government fleet.

It's also a LOT more long-term beneficial than battery-electric vehicles, in both upkeep and production costs. Not to mention hundreds of times more environmentally friendly.

While I have almost zero confidence that GM will survive long enough to see these vehicles hit production, I do think whoever buys them, or whatever they end up as after Chapter11 will get this technology to market with a quickness.

3/9/2009 7:19:37 PM

Quote :

"Talking with one of their engineers, they seem to believe that the necessary battery technology to create a solid electric vehicle with the range they desire is too far off. Thus, hydrogen appears to be the best bet without having to dramatically change the driving habits of most Americans."

they shouldnt have stopped with the ev-1

3/9/2009 8:05:38 PM

saving hope? you do realize that these alternative type of cars will have relatively little bearing on the bottom line for any automaker, at least for the next 5-10 years? I know Toyota is having a lot of problems now as well, but it got to where it is because of its regular old boring cars, not different stuff like the Prius.

3/9/2009 8:20:01 PM

it was my understanding that producing fuel-ready hydrogen cost more energy (and pollution) than it saved by running on hydrogen

i have nothing to back this up, and i've yet to google it, though

3/10/2009 11:44:03 AM

MAYBE YOU SHOULD GOOGLE IT BEFORE TALKING OUT OF YOUR ASS, SON

RAW RAWR RAWR KING DOUCHEBAG HERE..

[Edited on March 10, 2009 at 12:38 PM. Reason : obligatory "son"]

3/10/2009 12:35:37 PM

3/10/2009 3:53:37 PM