GM's Project Driveway hydrogen fuel cell program passes a million miles
GM HydroGen4 - Click above for high-res image gallery
It's been two years since General Motors embarked on its Project Driveway hydrogen fuel cell test program here in the United States. We're not sure exactly what the automaker would consider a successful demonstration, but the fact that the vehicles will pass the one million mile mark sometime this week could surely be cited as one benchmark that's worth touting.
Those million-plus miles were accumulated by regular people who just so happen to live in the Southern California, New York or Washington, D.C. GM says about 70 families participated in the program and they came from all walks of life.
GM also points to the fact that its hydrogen program directly benefited cars and trucks currently for sale using the automaker's Two-Mode Hybrid drivetrain, which have the same regenerative braking system as the HydroGen 4 Equinox SUVs used in Project Driveway. Plus, lessons learned with the thermal management system employed in the fuel cell vehicles were transferred over to the Volt. So, even if you can't rush to your local Chevy dealership and buy a hydrogen car, the project is having an indirect impact on future cars and trucks that you may drive. That counts for something, right?
Gallery: First Drive: GM HydroGen4
[Source: GM Fastlane]
Reader Comments (Page 1 of 1)
Paul 5:16PM (9/09/2009)
I find it interesting that this GM program is more extensive and further a long than Honda Clarity but you wouldn't really know it.
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ufgrat 5:45PM (9/09/2009)
You can bet that Honda will throw a massive party when they hit 1 million miles on the FCX program, and the entire automotive media will be celebrating along with them.
The media coverage of project driveway has been at best, like this article... a half-hearted glass-is-mostly-empty study in apathy...
Which is sad, since GM is probably the world leader in fuel cell technology right now.
Serge 5:17PM (9/09/2009)
How many billion dollars this whole boondoggle cost?
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XYZ 5:35PM (9/09/2009)
Who cares anyway? It's either "old GM" money or taxpayer's money. Yeah, bring it on.
Mark Kiernan 5:54PM (9/09/2009)
You have to remember, many investors don't understand technology, all they know is that EV and Hydrogen technologies that compete with ICE. The majority don't know it takes energy to produce H2, energy to store it, energy to transport it, and energy to put it in the car. They don't make the comparison where you just put the energy into a battery.
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jtak 7:26PM (9/09/2009)
This isn't about naive investors not understanding hydrogen. The investors are senior management from GM, Ford, Toyota, Honda, Nissan, Hyundai, and Volkswagen - and they do understand it. And given the engineering and business analysis capability they have, it's highly likely they know more than any of us about hydrogen, fuel cells, batteries which are all used in fuel cell electric vehicles.
meme 8:06PM (9/09/2009)
Given that Lutz didn't even know that EV drivetrain components were significantly more expensive than ICE drivetrain components when they started building the Volt, I'd say the top brass's level of knowledge of alt fuel drive technology is a bit on the thin side.
Chris M 11:10PM (9/09/2009)
Id have to agree with Meme, the executives might not be all that well informed, especially when they get their info from the engineers on the H2 project that really don't want their projects and jobs cancelled!
Nixon 7:12PM (9/09/2009)
Sounds like the project was a great success. Now drop the fuel cell and replace it with the customer's choice of a slightly larger battery and a E85 flex fuel range-extender or just a much larger battery pack. Then they will have a winning green SUV entry that will revitalize the SUV market.
But how much of a success was it to get 70 cars to do 1 million miles over two years? That's less than 7,500 miles per car on average each year.
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Chris M 11:08PM (9/09/2009)
Well, considering that they couldn't really take them on long drives due to the lack of refueling (unless they brought along a refueling truck!) that 7,500 miles a year was all local driving. Considering that most of that was done by customers getting free fuel, that means a lot of local joyriding and cruising around just for the fun of it!
Anton 3:11AM (9/10/2009)
The capitalist system is based on taxing the taxpayers at the petrol station office. Therefore, if you can charge your car at home, you can avoid the tax office and this is not good for the capitalist system, big automotive and petroleum companies, that work together. The H2 alternative sounds good for them, but not for taxpayers.
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EVdriver 4:38AM (9/10/2009)
1 million useless miles. Nice.
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Carney 9:28AM (9/10/2009)
The Hydrogen Hoax:
http://www.thenewatlantis.com/publications/the-hydrogen-hoax
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doug korthof 12:47PM (9/10/2009)
No, it doesn't count for anything except to show that GM is still a shameful liar.
The "OX" fuel cell car costs roughly $3 million to build, about $1 per mile to run, and the fuel cell gets fouled by Carbon in the air within 3 years.
The whole thing is a CROCK.
GM is trying to explain why it's not making proven, much cheaper, already-running NiMH plug-in electric cars; so they make up b.s. stories like "we're working on the battery" or "we're building hydrogen cars" or some other crappola.
Just a bunch of shameful liars, the same fools who ran GM into bankruptcy are still running GM into the toilet -- this time, with gummint money.
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