General Motors is getting down and to the point with hydrogen fuel cell cars, announcing today it is “ testing a production-intent hydrogen fuel cell system that can be packaged in the space of a traditional four-cylinder engine and be ready for commercial production in 2015.” This builds upon its Project Driveway fuel cell car program begun in late 2007.
GM says the new fuel cell system is half the size, 220 pounds lighter and uses about a third of the platinum of the system found in the Chevy Equinox fuel car vehicles being used in the Driveway program. The program itself has seen nearly 1.3 million miles of everyday driving logged in cities around the world, and the vehicles which were part of it will continue to see use as examples of how “hydrogen fuel cells are a viable alternative to gasoline-powered vehicles.” As for the new-look Chevy fuel cell vehicle, the first loaner has been given to one Stephanie White, “a fuel cell advocate who was among the first Project Driveway participants and regularly blogs on her vision for a hydrogen economy in which zero-pollution fuel cells are a mainstream source of transportation.”
image via GM
“The 30 months we committed to the demonstration are winding down,” said Charles Freese, executive director of GM’s Global Fuel Cell Activities, in a statement, “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.”
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