GM's Lutz says he'll push board to fund hydrogen fuel cell production vehicles
Bob Lutz, Vice Chairman of General Motors, said he is going to pressure the company's strategy board to fund full-production hydrogen fuel cell vehicles. GM is demonstrating the Chevrolet's Sequel fuel cell vehicle this week, and Lutz was on hand at a Sequel press event. Lutz told Automotive News (sorry, subscription only) that in the end, hydrogen fuel cell vehicles will be much cheaper to produce. "The technology has absolutely matured enough to go into production. We still have a slight cost problem on hydrogen storage, but the rest of the vehicle is basically cheaper. You've got no automatic transmission and so forth. The hydrogen stack, or fuel cell, is basically like an automobile battery in reverse. It's just stamped steel plates and separators and membranes in a box," he said.
GM has been spending about $100 million a year for the past five years to get the fuel cell technology working, and the company expects hydrogen production vehicles in 2010. One of the first major hydrogen markets could be China, Lutz said, where many nuclear plants could produce the fuel cheaply and cleanly.
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[Source: Automotive News]
Reader Comments (Page 1 of 1)
Howard Lee Harkness 10:38PM (9/16/2006)
"We still have a slight cost problem on hydrogen storage"
SLIGHT problem? It's a biggie, and it's not the only problem, by far.
The day will come when some poor soul has a slow H2 (colorless, odorless) leak in his car, and comes out in the morning open his garage door. The spark in the switch will set off the explosion that will level his house, kill him and his family, and severely damage his neighbors' homes.
Then there will be the pileup between some little H2 powered car with 700 bar tanks, and a semi. The subsequent explosion kills everyone within 100 ft.
I just hope I'm not in the vicinity when (not if) it happens. Maybe a couple of high-profile events of this nature will finally put a stop to this nonsense.
Using hydrogen to power automobiles is insanely stupid.
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