GM shifting 500 fuel cell engineers to production engineering groups
Aside from Honda, General Motors has probably been the most aggressive automaker when it comes to developing fuel cell technology in-house. The company has taken great advantage of some of the advanced manufacturing technology they have developed in producing catalytic converters for gas engined vehicles. Based on what VP of research and development and strategic planning Larry Burns has said in recent months it looks like the most important advance GM has made with fuel cells is catalyst thrifting. The basic technology of how fuel cell stacks function is basically worked out. The biggest issue with the stack is getting the manufacturing cost down. Thrifting allows GM to apply the catalyst to the layers of the stack more uniformly while using less of the precious metals. That allow the efficiency and power density to be increased while reducing the cost dramatically. GM has already said that by 2009 they will have the cost of the their fuel cell system down to cost parity with current internal combustion engines at $50/kW.
With all of these advances GM has decided it's time to move this technology from the research side of the business over to the production side. To accomplish this GM is moving a large chunk of the people with the fuel cell expertise from their research and development group over to production engineering. Over 400 of the engineers and scientists from the company's Honeoye Falls, N.Y. facility will now report to the powertrain division to begin the production engineering while another 100 will be applying fuel cells to future production vehicles as part of the global product development teams. The remaining 150+ engineers and scientists at Honeoye Falls will stay in the research department to keep stack and hyrdrogen storage technology moving forward. The GM press release is after the jump.
[Source: General Motors]
GM Prepares Fuel Cell Technology for Future Production
Aligns Fuel Cell Researchers with Company's Core Engineering Organizations
DETROIT – General Motors Corp. is moving more than 500 fuel cell experts from advanced development laboratories to core engineering functions to prepare this technology for future production.
More than 400 fuel cell engineers will report to GM's Powertrain Group to begin production engineering of fuel cell systems. Another 100 will transfer to GM's Global Product Development organization to start integrating fuel cells into future company vehicles. Finally, more than 150 fuel cell scientists and program support will remain as part of GM's Research and Development center to continue advanced research in hydrogen storage, fuel cells and program commercialization.
The transition is aimed at expediting the company's efforts to produce vehicles that displace petroleum through energy diversity.
"Eight years ago we said that hydrogen fuel cell electric vehicle technology could make a major contribution to solving the energy and environmental challenges facing the automobile industry," said Larry Burns, GM Vice President, Research and Development. "Today's announcement signals another important milestone as we move fuel cell vehicles closer to future production."
GM shared details about its fifth-generation fuel cell system technology when it unveiled the fuel cell-powered E-Flex version of the Chevrolet Volt at the Shanghai Auto Show in April. This latest system is half the size of its predecessor, yet provides the same power and performance.
GM's fourth-generation system currently powers the Chevrolet Sequel and Equinox Fuel Cell vehicles. The Sequel recently went into the record books as the first electrically-driven fuel cell vehicle to achieve more than 300 miles on one tank of hydrogen, in and out of traffic on public roads, while producing zero emissions. The Chevrolet Equinox Fuel Cell will be launched later this year as part of Project Driveway, which will place more than 100 hydrogen fuel cell vehicles with consumers in New York, Washington, D.C. and Los Angeles.
"Moving our fuel cell experts from advanced development laboratories to our core engineering organizations highlights our strong commitment to developing electrically-driven vehicles using diverse energy sources" said Tom Stephens, GM Group Vice President of Global Powertrain.
Leading the fuel cell engineering team is Dr. J. Byron McCormick, currently executive director, GM Fuel Cell Activities. He will report simultaneously to Dan Hancock, GM Powertrain Vice President, Global Engineering, and John Buttermore, GM Powertrain Vice President, Global Manufacturing. McCormick has been working on electric and fuel cell propulsion system research and development for more than 30 years. He was instrumental in the development of the EV-1 electric vehicle, and during the past 10 years, has led the GM fuel cell activities team to becoming the world's leader in fuel cell technology.
This realignment is yet another initiative in GM's commitment to displace petroleum usage in the auto industry through a range of propulsion alternatives, including:
Aligns Fuel Cell Researchers with Company's Core Engineering Organizations
DETROIT – General Motors Corp. is moving more than 500 fuel cell experts from advanced development laboratories to core engineering functions to prepare this technology for future production.
More than 400 fuel cell engineers will report to GM's Powertrain Group to begin production engineering of fuel cell systems. Another 100 will transfer to GM's Global Product Development organization to start integrating fuel cells into future company vehicles. Finally, more than 150 fuel cell scientists and program support will remain as part of GM's Research and Development center to continue advanced research in hydrogen storage, fuel cells and program commercialization.
The transition is aimed at expediting the company's efforts to produce vehicles that displace petroleum through energy diversity.
"Eight years ago we said that hydrogen fuel cell electric vehicle technology could make a major contribution to solving the energy and environmental challenges facing the automobile industry," said Larry Burns, GM Vice President, Research and Development. "Today's announcement signals another important milestone as we move fuel cell vehicles closer to future production."
GM shared details about its fifth-generation fuel cell system technology when it unveiled the fuel cell-powered E-Flex version of the Chevrolet Volt at the Shanghai Auto Show in April. This latest system is half the size of its predecessor, yet provides the same power and performance.
GM's fourth-generation system currently powers the Chevrolet Sequel and Equinox Fuel Cell vehicles. The Sequel recently went into the record books as the first electrically-driven fuel cell vehicle to achieve more than 300 miles on one tank of hydrogen, in and out of traffic on public roads, while producing zero emissions. The Chevrolet Equinox Fuel Cell will be launched later this year as part of Project Driveway, which will place more than 100 hydrogen fuel cell vehicles with consumers in New York, Washington, D.C. and Los Angeles.
"Moving our fuel cell experts from advanced development laboratories to our core engineering organizations highlights our strong commitment to developing electrically-driven vehicles using diverse energy sources" said Tom Stephens, GM Group Vice President of Global Powertrain.
Leading the fuel cell engineering team is Dr. J. Byron McCormick, currently executive director, GM Fuel Cell Activities. He will report simultaneously to Dan Hancock, GM Powertrain Vice President, Global Engineering, and John Buttermore, GM Powertrain Vice President, Global Manufacturing. McCormick has been working on electric and fuel cell propulsion system research and development for more than 30 years. He was instrumental in the development of the EV-1 electric vehicle, and during the past 10 years, has led the GM fuel cell activities team to becoming the world's leader in fuel cell technology.
This realignment is yet another initiative in GM's commitment to displace petroleum usage in the auto industry through a range of propulsion alternatives, including:
- E85-capable biofuel vehicles – GM is a leading producer with more than 2 million on the road today
- GM's 2-mode hybrid system for large city buses
- GM's Hybrid System in the Saturn Vue Green Line and Saturn Aura Green Line
- Coming this fall, GM's 2-mode hybrid system in the Chevrolet Tahoe and GMC Yukon full-size SUVs, which provides a more than 25-percent improvement in fuel economy to what is already the industry's most fuel-efficient large SUVs, with no compromises in performance or towing capability
- Due next year, a front-wheel-drive 2-mode Saturn Vue Green Line that is expected to deliver up to a 45-percent improvement in combined city and highway fuel economy compared with the current non-hybrid Vue, based on current federal test procedures
- Plans to produce a plug-in version of the 2-mode hybrid Vue Green Line that has the potential to achieve double the fuel efficiency of any current SUV
Reader Comments (Page 1 of 1)
Altairian1 9:11AM (6/15/2007)
Conflicting signal after Toyota announces the FAILURE of their battery initiative.The Volt must be DOD.
The Altairnative in the short term is clear: NANOSAFE
( Alti ).
Ps.- In the EVworld you got to Play it safe:nanosafe.
Reply
Tim 9:20AM (6/15/2007)
How are you going to (a) produce, (b) compress, (c) store, (d) transport, (d) transfer to the vehicle, (e) store onboard the hydrogen MORE efficiently and less expensively than using just the electricity? Can you do these things efficiently and inexpensively AT HOME like electricity? Can you use the EXISTING infrastructure like electricity? OR are you just trying to make a silk purse our of a sow’s ear like GM is doing with all that money they poured down the rat hole that is hydrogen?
According to Dr. David Cole, the Chairman of the Center for Automotive Research: “…it's more related to where we going to get the hydrogen, how we going to transport it and how do you store it both off-board and on-board the vehicle. I think that's really a tremendous challenge. For example, we've got a lot of hydrogen around us in water. The trick is that the bonding energy of hydrogen and oxygen is so great it's very difficult to extract that hydrogen readily. If we have inexpensive electric power, no problem. But we don't have inexpensive electric power and there are other technologies that I think have to be utilized and of course if we take something like hydrogen out of a hydrocarbon molecule, what do we do with the carbon? We might be able to sequester , but where we get it, how we're going to store it and how we going to transport it I think are issues that are going to take a little longer than five or ten years.” http://www.autobloggreen.com/2007/06/14/autobloggreen-qanda-dr-david-cole/
Reply
mbongo 10:00AM (6/15/2007)
Hey Tim,
You may be right! According to you, all of these people working for GM are stupids, they don't know what there are doing.
But I think you are wrong. Just one thing: if GM intends to produce fuel cell cars by 2010, don't you think that now is the time to start the work?
It is time to grow up a bit more. You can a Toyota, Ford or Honda guy, but this can't be for anyone a reason for not to recognize that others can also do more.
Reply
ex-g35-owner 10:09AM (6/15/2007)
500 engineers?!
I certainly hope they have something to produce.
I didn't realize they were throwing this much brain-power at the problem !
Reply
cmattson 11:21AM (6/15/2007)
"The Volt must be DOD."??
In a word: "No".
You couldn't be further from the truth. GM's design is flexible (hence the architecture's code name of "E-Flex"). The eletrical-generation piece can be powered by anything and the rest of the vehicle remains the same. At the Detroit auto show, the Volt had a gasoline-powered generator. At Geneva, it was hydrogen powered.
As a side note, GM's already partnered with Shell & has hydrogen refilling stations in certain markets (DC comes to mind).
Reply
rick 11:09AM (6/15/2007)
So, uh......the last time i checked, admittedly a couple of years ago, hydrogen cost something like $7/gallon-equivalent, right?
What is it now and what will it be in the future? It's my understanding that hydrogen will always follow the price of oil/natgas because the largest current market for hydrogen is into the oil refining business. So what makes these guys think anybody can afford to tank one of the FCV's up even if they get it on the market?
Reply
pkuhl 11:54AM (6/15/2007)
Tim's right. They are going the wrong route, again. Hydrogen fuel cells are wasteful, especially compared to full electric vehicles. Here's a fuel cell guy telling us that:
http://www.efcf.com/e/reports/E17.pdf
So yes, the people working for GM are foolish. They are chasing the least efficient solution and throwing tons of money at it. Honda did this too.
A friend of my theorized that they did this to meet California emissions requirements since that market is so huge. However, you have to pollute like crazy to make your hydrogen, then compress it, then transport it, then give up and work on the battery technology you should have been working on.
Reply
art vatsky 12:25PM (6/15/2007)
GM is vehicle focused. I am glad that are succeeding at catalyst thrifting but the progress in energy storage and hybrids is nothing short of amazing. I think there will be a horse race for a few years but I would bet on all electric or the Volt. GM's fuel cell technology will find applications elsewhere anyway.
Reply
Tim 1:10PM (6/15/2007)
If GM wants to throw their stockholder's money away on fuel cells, it's not my problem. It only becomes my problem if they ask for my tax money for this research, stall other alternative fuel research or if they later ask the gov’t to spend $Billions of our tax money to set up the "hydrogen economy" infrastructure so we can become hooked on another big oil product. We already have the electric infrastructure in place and R&D money would be better spent on advanced batteries, algae biodiesel, cellulosic ethanol and clean renewable electricity production. Hydrogen is a poor way to store electrons.
Reply
Ted 2:30PM (6/15/2007)
Hydrogen is currently very expensive - why?
Hydrogen, one of the most abundant elements in the universe, is almost never alone, it is chemically attached to something else.
It usually takes a lot of energy to separate the hydrogen from other elements.
Where does that energy come from? Electricity!
What G.W. Bush really means when he talks about the "hydrogen" economy is really the "nuclear" or as he calls it the "nucular" economy. Nuclear generated electricity is the only environmentally friendly, and cost effective way to get the electricity on scale that we need to produce hydrogen.
One has to ask the obvious question: If we are going to build new nuclear power plants to get all this hydrogen, why don't we just go straight to electric cars?
GM, put the research dollars into battery technology. Hydrogen is a very short term solution. Better batteries are the best long term bet.
-ted
Reply
Joseph 2:39PM (6/15/2007)
GM, like all the other car companies are wasting money on Hydrogen. GM isn't stupid though. They know that they'll never sell or lease hydrogen cars except in very small numbers across places like California and New York. Why? There is no infrastructure! Theonly way would be if people had their own hydrogen fueling stations at home. (Sounds pricey!) Their hydrogen program will probably be as large as Honda's. I believe Honda is leasing something like a dozen hydrogen cars acorss the U.S.
Anyway, the reason GM, along with the other car companies, is doing this is to delay the electric car that worked. This is no conspiracy theory, it's just true. The car companies don't want EVs largely because they need very little maintinance, and maitinance is a huge source of income for them.
I'm sure GM will have a hydrogen car by 2010; it'll be more like a test car though. And I know everything I am saying conflicts with the Volt that GM is producing, but GM is a very self-conflicting company. They went out of their way to make a special electric car, and then went out of their way to have the car destroyed. Hmm...big corporations are weird!
Reply
greg woulf 3:11PM (6/15/2007)
This isn't purely fuel cell only people.
These are electric car people, and like a previous poster mentioned the Chevy Volt is an electric car. It's 100% electric, like a fuel cell car would be.
That means that bringing these engineers into the main group opens them up for working on the Volt, or other electric prototypes.
So you take someone that was in charge of electrical braking systems and they use electricity from a battery instead of a fuel cell.
Their basic task is the same.
The other thing is people are assuming the only fuel is Hydrogen. The fuel cell process works best with Hydrogen, but also with other Hydrocarbons. Plus there's always the fact that they might have a way to break down Hydrocarbons and use the resulting fuel in the car. That'd make the road blocks go away if they had a cost effective fuel cell.
I don't know, and I'm with you thinking that batteries are the way to go. I'm just leaving my mind open to the possiblities.
Reply
JL Wallace 5:13PM (6/15/2007)
THIS IS PURE MASTURBATION!
Watch "Who Killed the Electric Car?" and you'll understand that hydrogen fuel cells and "bio-fuels" are red herring to distract people from the fact that we have working ELECTRIC cars that can get 300 miles per charge! BIG OIL IS DOING THIS ON PURPOSE SO THEY CAN KEEP THEIR PROFIT MARGINS!
Reply
Chris M 9:53PM (6/16/2007)
500 engineers, and not one of them dares tell GM executives the truth about how bad H2 autos are. After all, their very paycheck is dependent on the H2 hype.
Also, while there are fuel cells that don't need H2, the PEM fuel cells that GM are planning to use run only on pure H2 and oxygen. Solid oxide fuel cells and molten carbonate fuel cells can run directly on natural gas and other hydrocarbons, but operate at very high temperatures and are not currently suitable for automotive use.
Reply