GM Says Fuel Cell EV Is Being Treated Just Like Any Pre-Production Program
By Scott Doggett November 11, 2009
Although talk of fuel cell electric vehicles from the water cooler to, say, the biggest office at the U.S. Department of Energy generally revolves around how far off the technology really is, the head of General Motors' fuel-cell program has just come out and said the Chevy Equinox FCEV is well on its way to production.
Writing in GM's Fast Lane blog Tuesday, Charles Freese said the "fuel cell program left R&D about a year ago and became part of Powertrain, where it is treated like any pre-production program when it comes to seeking efficiency, cost reduction, design for manufacturability, and other elements of a production program."
He hastened to add that the cost of Equinox "is still expensive, but the costs are coming down dramatically. Our next-generation fuel cell architecture is 220 pounds lighter, uses about half the parts and roughly a third of the precious metals, compared to the still-impressive Equinox demonstration vehicles."
Freese pointed out that the technology that went into the Equinox is only four years ago, and during that time GM deployed Project Driveway -- a fleet of more than 100 Equinox FCEVs that today has more than 1 million miles of accumulated driving by real consumers.
"In some ways, we are a victim our own success," he wrote. "The Chevy Equinox fuel cell is a great car, but it is a demonstration vehicle with aging technology and high cost. The next-generation fuel cell system is much less expensive but is not yet to the point where we have vehicles on the road."
The graphic below shows the significant physical differences and the tale of the tape between the Project Driveway propulsion system and the next-generation system.
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