GM Shifting Equniox Fuel-Cell Electric Vehicle Tests To Business Fleets
By John O'Dell December 22, 2009Consumer Road Tests of Hydrogen FCEVs Have Rolled Up More Than a Million Miles
General Motors Co. will change the emphasis of its "Project Driveway" demonstration fleet of hydrogen fuel-cell powered Chevrolet Equinox crossovers in 2010 to focus on potential business applications, a representative for the program told us at a recent energy conference in West Virginia.
Project Driveway, initiated in 2007, put 100 Chevrolet Equinox Fuel Cell Electric Vehicles into consumers' hands in California, Washington, D.C., and New York.
But after accruing more than 1 million miles of testing, GM next year is shifting the Equinox Fuel Cell fleet to business users, said Monica Murphy, Project Driveway's manager for the D.C. area.
The move makes sense.
After 1 million miles of consumer testing, GM probably has little left to learn from consumers driving what is claimed to be the world's largest test fleet of fuel-cell vehicles.
Businesses or government, meanwhile, are certain to be the actual first adopters of "production" fuel-cell vehicles because they will be more able to afford them - and because many may want to project an environmentally aware image.
Equally important, however: commercial operators are more likely to have duty cycles that assure fixed-range driving and predictable routes culminating in return to a central, established refueling station.
Commercial users also may become interested enough to invest in widening the hydrogen refueling network.
"We're stalled because of infrastructure," Murphy said at the conference.
The Chevy Equinox Fuel Cell demonstrators have a range of about 160 miles, when filled at a a pressure of 700 bar (10,153 psi), but some hydrogen stations only fill at 350 bar, packing less fuel into the pressurized tanks and cutting range to around 75 miles. The higher-pressure hydrogen delivery enables a full refill to about 20 minutes.
- Bill Visnic, senior contributing editor, Edmunds AutoObserver
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Read Inside Line's full road test of the Chevrolet Equinox Fuel Cell Electric Vehicle.
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