GM Exec: Energy Cos. Failing Fuel-Cell Car Makers
By John O'Dell April 2, 2008
GM's message is emblazoned on slide accompanying GM executive's speech chastizing hydrogen industry.
By John O'Dell, Senior Editor
SACRAMENTO, Calif. -- Crusty corporate vice chairman Bob Lutz usually is cast as General Motor's hitman when there's a hard-nosed message to be delivered. But the automaker this week is calling on soft-spoken strategist Larry Burns to blast the hydrogen industry for not working hard enough to realize what should be a common goal.
The world needs fuel-cell electric vehicles, but the hydrogen industry is not stepping up to do its part, Burns will tell hundreds of industry insiders in a speech at the National Hydrogen Association's annual conference here this morning.
"There does not appear to be a sense of urgency" by hydrogen suppliers to build the refining, delivery and refueling infrastructure now needed to support the fuel cell cars that automakers including GM are ready to start producing, he said in a pre-speech interview with Green Car Advisor.
"We need to build more of these cars, but why do it if there are no fuel stations out there?" Now, Or Never?
Fuel cell vehicles have gone beyond the lab, said Burns, GM's vice president for research and development and strategic planning. Recent models such as Honda's FXC Clarity (right) and GM's Equinox Fuel Cell SUV show that "the cars are real now," he said.
"The need is real, too. Oil is $100 a barrel and the dollars flowing out of this economy to buy it is astronomical."
Fuel cell vehicles, which run on electrical power produced on-bard in an electro-chemical reactor that converts hydrogen and oxygen to electricity and water vapor, can relieve the country of a significant chunk of its oil dependency and help combat global warming by reducing automotive greenhouse gasses, he said.
They need hydrogen fuel to do so, however; to stop being test and research dummies and to become vehicles that ordinary people can use for everyday transportation needs.
The actions "right now" of the energy industry and various government agencies charged with promoting alternative fuels and clean vehicles "will determine whether, and how soon, our world realizes" the benefits of automotive fuel cell technology, Burns says in his speech. GM provided advance copies to the media.
Urgency Stressed
"It is past time for the necessary infrastructure initiatives to accelerate," he says. "What is urgently needed is sufficient investment by energy providers, and the cooperation of government, to assure auto companies that the required hydrogen infrastructure will be in place when we deploy our next generation of fuel cell-electric vehicles."
Major automakers have done all the internal testing and research they can do to advance fuel cell vehicle development, Burns said in the interview.
"Now we need to get successive generations of these vehicles out there so we can really learn from how people use them."
GM has "had eight generations of hardware in 12 years of On-Star, and that's why we're ready to make it standard in all of our cars, because we know it works," he said of GM's in-car telematics system.
Burns, with fuel-cell Exqinox at Detroit Auto Show, says hydrogen need is urgent.
"Now we need to get generations one, and two and three of our fuel cell cars out there to do the same kind of commercial cycle development."
Need Aggressive Policies
Citing California's recent decision to require automakers to produce 7,500 fuel cell vehicles for sale in the state between 2012 and 2014, Burns calls in his speech for "more aggressive policies" from government to guarantee that fueling stations are up and running "prior to the arrival of the next wave of vehicles."
He acknowledged in the interview that he was not aware that the state's air board last week asked its staff to look at the situation and come up with a plan to do just that.
GM, he said, is willing to concentrate its next batch of fuel cell vehicles in one region of California in order to make it easier for fuel suppliers to build filling stations that could serve all of the drivers.
To place one hydrogen station within 3.6 miles of almost all of the 16 million residents of greater Los Angeles and Orange County would require only 30 strategically placed facilities, he said.
If the stations cost as much as $4 million each, the total investment would be $120 million. Add 120 more stations to cover routes to popular regional destinations such as Palm Springs, Las Vegas and Santa Barbara, and the cost climbs to $160 million.
Growth Opportunity
"That's $10 per person, or about 3 gallons of gas or two lattes. It's not that expensive and it means that the infrastructure is viable and doable" if the energy suppliers can be made to see the need, Burns said.
"This is not a gamble, it's a business growth opportunity."
But the need to act is now, he says in his speech.
"Either we solve it now, or it becomes a problem that we will hand off to our children."
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