GM to build world's largest fuel cell fleet
Amidst the big news last week regarding the Chevy Sequel fuel cell vehicle, General Motors announced they will build the world's largest fuel cell fleet to date. Dubbed Project Driveway, the fleet will be comprised of more than 100 Chevrolet Equinox SUVs converted to run on hydrogen. According to a press release, GM's aim is to "provide comprehensive insight into all aspects of the customer experience." Deployment to GM customers is planned for the fall of 2007 in California, New York and Washington D.C.
Related:
[Source: Fuel Cell Works]
Reader Comments (Page 1 of 1)
Alternative Energy Blog 8:03PM (9/17/2006)
Wow, a whole one hundred vehicles! Any indication of the cost of production? Last time I heard hydrogen Mercedes A-Classes were about one million dollars each. Although this has no doubt fallen somewhat, I bet these Chevrolet Equinoxs cost a lot more to produce than a Tesla Roadster.
And Tesla Roadsters are produced by a start up, not by GM who have been working on hydrogen vehicles for over a decade.
GM plans to start mass production of hyrdogren vehicles when exactly?
Hydrogen - the fuel of the perpetual future.
James
Alternative Energy Blog
Reply
Tony Belding 12:36AM (9/18/2006)
GM have certainly demonstrated how good they are at generating publicity. Much ink shall be spilled. Yet I have to chime in with James, the Tesla Roadster seems more plausible and compelling to me than GM's hydrogen program.
Reply
Michel 3:20AM (9/18/2006)
Ontario has worked hard to support and encourage leading-edge investments in our automotive industry.
Reply
DPC car videos 3:42AM (9/18/2006)
When I first read the largest quantity, I thought it was a few thousand, not 100.
Reply
Chris M 10:36PM (2/07/2007)
A hundred? What the...
GM considered the EV1 a "failure" when it leased 800! Sounds like a setup for "we tried, but there was no market..."
Reply
Henry 8:42AM (2/08/2007)
Fuelcell cars require a lot of service especially if the Hydrogen used is not 100% pure as in Natural Gas reformation. It causes the 4000$ platinum to require frequent replacement. Hydrogen also embrittles metal so the whole fuel system from the tank and fuel lines etc..will have to be changed under "warranty" frequently.
A more fuel efficient and equivalently polluting car is the Prius CNG. Takes less gas then a Fuelcell car and only costs 25000$ available now with.
http://www.arb.ca.gov/msprog/zevprog/symposium/presentations/brooks.pdf
On page 23 - the million dollar fuel cell prototype doesn't even match the CNG Prius in energy consumption.
For more info on this car go to http://www.greencarcongress.com/2006/03/bifuel_prius_ii.html
Reply
Tim 10:11AM (2/08/2007)
This only way to stop this kind of nonsense is for our government to stop giving away our money for this pseudoscience. Unfortunately, like corn ethanol, there is just too much campaign money at stake for this to happen anytime soon. Everyone who has researched this subject knows that the future is in electric! H2 is an extremely inefficient way to store electrons.
I have an idea… How about term limits? Maybe we could rid ourselves these damn Career Politicians and return to UNPAID Volunteer Citizen Legislators who are more interested in serving the people than serving themselves? Everyone knows that Power Corrupts! Perhaps we should not loan them ours for so long. I know, all things will change… Hey, is that a PIG is see flying over my house??? No, it’s just pork.
Reply
Tim 10:57AM (2/08/2007)
Here’s something interesting. It shows how much federal dollars are being poured into each alternative energy field in 2008 http://www.whitehouse.gov/omb/pdf/energy-2008.pdf
$309 Million for Hydrogen and only $42 Million for advanced batteries. Any you wonder why so many auto manufacturers are working on fuel cells? ALWAYS follow the money!!!
I’m thinking the Big Oil lobby pushing their product “Natural” gas which is reformed into Hydrogen at One Fourth the cost of producing Hydrogen by electrolyzing it from water.
Reply