GM: Fuel Cell Vehicles Viable at 1 Million Units

According to The Korea Hearld, Larry Burns, GM's R&D and strategic planning director, speaking during the company's 'Tech Tour 2006' in Shanghai, said:

the cost of building hydrogen fuel cell cars will not exceed that of making conventional fuel powertrain vehicles once volumes reach 1 million units. "Lack of scale is the primary reason for the high costs of fuel cell vehicles."

GM has announced plans to build 100 fuel celled Cheverlot Equinoxes, shown right,  in 2007. (previous post)

The Korea Hearld article said that GM aims to design and validate a fuel cell system that is competitive in terms of performance, durability and cost at volume of $50 per kilowatt (of power generated) by 2010.

Burns also said that even if the technology is ready, mass production depends on having a hydrogen infrastructure.

GM is striving to minimize the requirement of the costly platinum used in its hydrogen fuel cell vehicle to cut production costs for commercialization.

"The key is to spread platinum on the fuel cell membrane as evenly as possible via a catalyst-thrift technology to meet cost and durability targets," Burns said. "We are also investing in other materials that can replace platinum."

He stressed that the hydrogen fuel cell is the ultimate answer for alternative propulsion systems because only it can solve the growing environmental problems such as carbon dioxide.

"Hybrids and bio-fuel vehicles are important bridges to hydrogen fuel cells," he said. "But they will be merely 'reducing problems' and this won't help because the number of cars continues to grow."

As for Honda's FCX fuel cell concept, Burns said he sees it as a formidable rival. The Japanese carmaker expects to launch a limited number of the FCX in Japan and the United States from 2008.

The Chevrolet Sequel, showcased at the GM Tech Tour in Shanghai, is the first vehicle to integrate a hydrogen fuel cell propulsion system with a broad menu of advanced technologies such as steer- and brake-by-wire controls, wheel hub motors, lithium-ion batteries and a lightweight aluminum structure.

"Sequel fundamentally changes the DNA of today's automobiles, exchanging an internal combustion engine, petroleum and mechanical systems for fuel cell propulsion, hydrogen and electrical systems," Burns said. "Sequel embodies the convergence of the technologies that address the environmental issues amidst a growing number of cars which account for a third of the carbon dioxide around the world."

Compared to other fuel cell vehicles, Sequel has an unprecedented range of 480 kilometers between fill-ups and spirited acceleration reaching 100 km/h in just 10 seconds. It has a low-profile, skateboard-like chassis that houses all of its main propulsion, braking and chassis components including the fuel cell stack and the on-board hydrogen storage system.

Comments

[Andreas]

Energy storage by hydrogen has an extremely poor efficiency of only 25 %, the remaining 75% are lost in electrolysis, compression or liquefaction, transportation and fuel cell. By contrast storage of solar electricity in batteries is around 85% efficient:

http://www.teslamotors.com/blog1/wp-content/uploads/2006/09/converted.swf
http://www.efcf.com/reports/

[Matt]

Ummm. Even George Bush realizes that Fuel Cells are a distant hope. He says the future is plug-in hybrids.

I think the future is more straight up EVs + cooperative municipal power company V2G technology.

Fuel cells may be needed for really big things like ocean freight ships, trains, and big rig trucks. Even then, I've read that methanol is a much more convenient energy carrier & can be made from hydrogen and CO2.

[Mick]

There's more to this announcement than just use of fuel cells.

Wheel-hub electric motors work with a whole range of power sources: diesel-electric, gasoline-electric, diesel and gasoline hybrids, and batteries. Engines can run at optimum speed, regardless of vehicle speed. The weight of the drive shaft is eliminated. Each wheel can be independently driven to improve skid control.

Drive by wire and aluminum chassis are other important changes.

Maybe GM really is capable of change.

[Fredrik]

Re: Hub motors

Engines can not run at optimal speed, unless there is gearing in the wheel motors. Due to the weight problems of hub motors, this is usually not the case.

Total weight goes up (4x10kW weighs more than 1x40kW), you need four controllers instead of one and most of the weight is unsprung.

Traditional stability control systems are pretty good so the improvement would not be worth it.

[Kir]

Has anyone seen an analysis on using wheel-hub motors with a small internal combustion engine (that runs at optimal speed) and an energy storage system? How small can the engine become? Trading a geared transmission for electrical power distribution helps reduce weight. The fact that no one's do it probably says the advantage isn't there, however someone has to run through the numbers.

[amazingdrx]

http://www.greencarcongress.com/2006/08/pmls_inwheel_mo.html

There it is Kir. It has an ICE powered generator, but with multi-fuel solid oxide fuel cell/microturbine generator instead it would get 5 times the mileage, even without battery charging from the grid.

You are right, no transmission, and that saves weight. And the backup generator reduces the amount of battery alone range needed, cutting the high cost and weight of the batteries. And giving these types of vehicles the same performancve and utility of regular cars, with fantastic mileage.

[amazingdrx]

The mass production statement by the gM spokesman is probably true.

But he is touting the wrong fuel cells. Hydrogen is a boondoggle. A diversion to keep ICE powered transport the dominant design.

It is too expensive and inefficient to produce and store, and those gas stations with consumers using high pressure hydrogen? They are virtually uninsurable. And hugely expensive.

The GM exec should have been touting muti-fuel solid oxide fuel cell/microturbine backup generators (they run on biodiesel,diesel, gasoline, ethanol, biogas, kerosene)for electric plugin vehicles instead, that would all fit into the GM "skateboard" design. And GM would soon be number one again with vehicles that have over 5 times the mileage of their present line.

But have GM execs even heard of this technology? I doubt it. In corporate jet land they don't read blogs, it is far beneath them.

[George]

He stressed that the hydrogen fuel cell is the ultimate answer for alternative propulsion systems because only it can solve the growing environmental problems such as carbon dioxide.

Good Lord! The guy sounds like a televangelist.

[Miss Used Car Los Angeles]

Sounds like good news but we'll see what happens.

[apeweek]

The Sequel fuel-cell car weighs almost 5000 pounds. A battery powered EV with enough li-ion batteries to bring the weight up to that level would have a range of almost 1000 miles. Now THAT would be an impressive car.

[Kir]

This is the way to do it:

http://www.ecoworld.com/blog/2006/11/10/serial-hybrids-are-here/

[Nathaniel Millward]

Yes, fuel cell vehicles; big talk about that these days. Many car companies plan to be involved in “next generation fuel cell vehicle” movement. Nissan is also joining in with the Nissan Green Movement program, but not until 2010 apparently. You can read more here:

The Nissan Green Program

[Maggie Jones]

I saw the website for the new Honda fuel cell car. I cant find any information on what the cost of fueling up the fuel cell car will be..does someone out there know? I just presume some oil company already has their hands in the cookie jar and will patent all the fuel cell "fuel" so that a consumer will end up paying as much or more to fuel up their environmentally friendly car as they did with gas!..also, has anyone covered the idea that if you drive a hybrid car...are the batteries recycleable? After 10 years of use they should make it clear to the consumer that it is truly environmentally clean by making the old batteries recycleable, wouldnt you think?

[Terry (the car finder) Bolton]

hi,

I think that the increase in demand on any object will urge the manifacturers to develop it,so as much as we transform our needs to green cars the manifaturers will change thier production lines to fit this need.

I want to remind everybody of the global warming that has striking effects on us all

and i will start by buying a green car as well...

thanks

[JP de Lutz]

Major technology breakthroughs are almost weekly, one such is Violet Fuel Cell Stick I believe is worthy of your investigation, links are here http://www.greenboatbateauvert.com/2008/03/09/sofc-fuel-cell-stick/

[Abhijit Mukherji]

We at NMIMS University, India, have plans for setting up a "Green" research lab for developing economical fuel cells, and have completed a major study for utilities and vehicle manufacturers. Can anyone cut through this fog of seemingly endless debates and help us with transpaent, sensible, verifiable, up-to-date data & information on this ?

Dr.A.Mukherji

[Bob Wallace]

There must be a ton of technical papers available in your university library. Much better to trust peer reviewed work rather than what might be said on a blog.

That said, have you made yourself aware of the inefficiency of using hydrogen for transportation? One paper illustrated the problem of manufacturing, transporting, and storage and found that only about 1/3rd of the energy at the beginning of the process was delivered to the road to propel a vehicle. Electricity via batteries delivers about 2/3rds.

That would be a very big problem to overcome, loosing half the power.

(And that study was done prior to the better batteries that are now entering the market.)

I'm not saying that you shouldn't try to build an inexpensive fuel cell, just trying to make you aware of a possible market problem for your product.

[tony]

Funny how green now means green back,but its a start

[[email protected]]

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[Used Cars Los Angeles]

cool post. As far as Used Cars Los Angeles are concerned, I usually make it a point to have gas efficient vehicles. Hybrids are next in line.

[Walterhanson3152]

Hello! The Sequel fuel-cell car weighs almost 5000 pounds. A battery powered EV with enough li-ion batteries to bring the weight up to that level would have a range of almost 1000 miles. Now THAT would be an impressive car.

[Luxury Cars]

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Cynthia
-----------------
Luxury Cars

[computers cheap]

I think such vehicles will affect the environment in a better way but i think it will take to get these type cars and get use to it.

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[Joshua's Law]

Fuel cell most likely suitable for ships, trains or any large automobiles, i don't think those will going to replace our present car system any time soon, most probably they may be utilize some other technology which is more secure & non-explosive.

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[Ford Dealer Richardson]

Well, its 2011 now and I don't see any fuel cell cars around. The hot thing seems to hybrid. Some company, like Ford are making electric cars too.

[RMT]

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[Tampa Bay Ford DEaler]

Well, it's 2011 now and I still haven't seen Chevy Equinoxes out yet so I guess that idea never took off. However, the Volt is doing big things.

[Ford St Louis]

Fuel cell vehicles are a great idea. Anything to lessen emissions and keep the air clean is good with me.

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