GM-VOLT : Chevy Volt Electric Car Site

The hydrogen fuel cell powered car remains an elusive advanced technology transportation strategy that continues to have an uncertain future.

GM has worked for years and has spent over $1.6 billion to develop fuel cells that convert pressurized hydrogen into electricity. Since late 2007 their Project Driveway program has placed more than 100 fuel cell Equinoxes in willing participants’ hands.

Two major problems with hydrogen-powered cars are the exorbitant cost of the technology (the fuel cell Equinoxes are said to cost $1 million a piece), and the lack of hydrogen fueling station infrastructure.

Skeptics argue the conversion of energy into pressurized hydrogen is an unnecessary and inefficient step as the pure electric car simply plugs into the grid for its power. Further it is argued the tremendous cost of building the needed infrastructure isn’t justifiable.

Nonetheless GM continues to work to refine the technology and considers fuel cells the final step in its electrification strategy, even as it readies the Volt’s launch.

Last September GM unveiled a new production-intent fuel cell system that fits in the same size space as a traditional 4 cylinder engine. They claim the new generation fuel cell stack and system is half the size, 220 pounds lighter, and uses 1/3 the platinum as the fuel cells in the current Project Driveway fleet.

On Tuesday they announced that the new systems are already operational and undergoing testing.

“Our learning from Project Driveway has been tremendous and these vehicles have been very important to our program,” said Charles Freese, executive director of GM’s Global Fuel Cell Program.

“The 30 months we committed to the demonstration are winding down, but we will keep upgrades of these vehicles running and will continue learning from them while we focus efforts on the production-intent program for 2015,” he said. “We will continue to use the Project Driveway fleet strategically to advance fuel cell technology, hydrogen infrastructure, and GM’s vehicle electrification goals.”

GM has not announced what if any vehicle the tests are being conducted in, nor its exact 2015 commercialization plans.

GM spokesperson Alan Adler told GM-Volt, “the production intent system is not an extended range Voltec system.”

In 2007 GM showed a variant of the Volt concept in which the gas range extender was replaced with a fuel cell system.

“We are not abandoning the fuel-cell technology,” Freese told Bloomberg. “Through the worst years in this company’s history we maintained the program and maintained the forward progress.”

Freese also told Bloomberg “invested over $1.6 billion in fuel cells. We didn’t do it because people were talking about the technology. We did it because we think it’s one of the right elements to have.”

Lamenting the lack of government-funded infrastructure development Freese added “we have anything but consistent policy in this country.”

Source (GM) and (Bloomberg)

Hydrogen powered vehicles is a topic that tends to bring out debate. Before the recent explosion of interest in battery electric cars, talk of a hydrogen superhighway and fuel cells cars being the next big step were all the rage.

Interest appears to be waning.

Tom Stephens is vice-chairman of GM and is responsible for product development. I had the chance to ask him his thoughts on hydrogen and what GM is doing with respect to development and production of hydrogen fuel cell vehicles

Is the Volt the endgame or is it the fuel cell vehicle?
No. Each of them will continue going forward. My thesis is if you look at what’s going on for energy demand especially in the developing countries, the energy demand is going to continue to grow exponentially and we’re going to have to learn how to utilize energy from all sources if we’re going to have sustainable mobility. We haven’t done that in the last one hundred years. We’ve stayed on petroleum and that’s not a smart thing. It just doesn’t make any sense.

So going forward we are going to break it up

So are you still planning to produce fuel cell vehicles?
Right now what we have is a fuel cell demonstration fleet, Project Driveway, and we’re in one county and we’re going to four more countries and we’re trying to get a lot of customer feedback. We’re doing a lot of work on fuel cells right now to try and continue to move those forward.
At some point in the future we’ll have to decide whether we want to actually go into a production program.

So you haven’t made that decision yet?
No, not at this point. We could do it, but there are a lot of factors. One is our part which is the fuel cell stack and the fuel cell vehicle and how much it will cost. The other part happens to be the infrastructure in order to support the fuel cell and we’ll have to develop both of those.

Right now Germany and Japan are putting in an infrastructure for fuel cells and what we really need is for big US metropolitan cities to decide they want to put in the infrastructure and then it would make sense to go forward.

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Mr Stephens appeared on Autoline Detroit TV today and took some of our questions. You can see the show below:

As we have reported, GM has started it’s Project Driveway program in which 100 hydrogen fuel cell cars will be loaned to 100 U.S. drivers in NY, LA, and DC. Here in NY, I had the chance to drive off in one of these Equinoxes and recorded the experience in the video below the post.

In speaking with GM fuel cell executives, it seems clear they are serious about getting hydrogen cars on the road. Project Driveway will last 3-1/2 years, they then hope to use the consumer feedback to begin a production process which could lead to getting the cars on the road in 2013.

GM argues that substantial hydrogen can be generated from natural gas (CH4) with a net effect of less energy expenditure and less CO2 emission than petroleum use. They feel it could work in highly populated areas by building a few strategically located filling centers at a cost of $2 million each. It won’t work in large low-population density regions.

About one half of the hydrogen already produced in the U.S. is currently used to “scrub” sulfur out of petroleum. Thus, this hydrogen could be used to store vehicular energy, be turned into water in fuel cell cars, and the sulfur-containing petroleum can stay in Saudi Arabia. Net effect: petroleum displacement.

Right now, there is just one hydrogen fueling station in the NYC region in White Plains. The first two chosen east coast real-world drivers for Project Driveway live or work there, one is a teacher and the other an attorney. They will get their cars in January. GM hopes to use this project to convince goverment to help set up a few more hydrogen fueling stations in the region. Click play below and take a drive with me.

[flash http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uqo7zDRLZGI]

We have been hearing for a while about GM’s project driveway (see post). This refers to their large-scale experiment in which 100 people will get to use Fuel Cell Equinoxes for several months of real world driving.

Originally slated to begin in the fall, the official word is that it has begun.

The first individuals and some celebrities have now been selected to take possession of the million dollar vehicles. Seven testers have been chosen for now, and will be receiving their vehicles in the first quarter 2008. Media events are underway on the west coast. D.C. and NYC are the next stops over the next few weeks.

GM will use the drivers experiences as feedback to help them develop not only future fuel cell vehicles but the Chevy Volt E-Flex/ICE as well.

GM wants to see how people deal with driving electric motor cars, as they are different in feel, sound, and handling. They also want to observe how people react to hydrogen fueling.

The SUVs are using 4th generation fuel cell technology and store hydrogen in compressed form. They have a 93 kw fuel stack and a 73 kw (94 kw peak) motor. They can store up to 4.2 kg of hydrogen which will give 150 miles of range.

Fuel cells work by combining hydrogen and oxygen into water and electricity, the electricity drives the motor. Regenerative brakes capture the kinetic energy into a NiMh battery.