GM Moving Fuel Cells from Development Laboratories to Core Engineering

Per GM press release - General Motors Corp. is moving more than 500 fuel cell experts from advanced development laboratories to core engineering functions to prepare this technology for future production.

More than 400 fuel cell engineers will report to GM's Powertrain Group to begin production engineering of fuel cell systems. Another 100 will transfer to GM's Global Product Development organization to start integrating fuel cells into future company vehicles.

GM shared details about its fifth-generation fuel cell system technology when it unveiled the fuel cell-powered E-Flex version of the Chevorlot Volt at the Shanghai Auto Show in April. This latest system is half the size of its predecessor, yet provides the same power and performance.

The transition is aimed at expediting the company's efforts to produce vehicles that displace petroleum through energy diversity.

This realignment is yet another initiative in GM's commitment to displace petroleum usage in the auto industry through a range of propulsion alternatives, including:

• E85-capable biofuel vehicles - GM is a leading producer with more than 2 million on the road today

• GM's 2-mode hybrid system for large city buses

• GM's Hybrid System in the Saturn Vue Green Line and Saturn Aura Green Line

• Coming this fall, GM's 2-mode hybrid system in the Chevrolet Tahoe and GMC Yukon full-size SUVs, which provides a more than 25-percent improvement in fuel economy to what is already the industry's most fuel-efficient large SUVs, with no compromises in performance or towing capability

• Due next year, a front-wheel-drive 2-mode Saturn Vue Green Line that is expected to deliver up to a 45-percent improvement in combined city and highway fuel economy compared with the current non-hybrid Vue, based on current federal test procedures

• Plans to produce a plug-in version of the 2-mode hybrid Vue Green Line that has the potential to achieve double the fuel efficiency of any current SUV

Additionally, GM provides more vehicles that achieve 30 mpg on the highway than any other manufacturer in the U.S. market. GM is also the first automotive member to join the U.S. Climate Action Partnership (USCAP), a group of global companies and non-governmental organizations formed to support an economy-wide, market-driven approach to reducing carbon emissions.

Comments

[eric]

It just astounds me that they still stubbornly cling to the fuel cell as if it were something relevant for the future. This leads me to suspect that the whole thing is just a dog and pony show to try and hoodwink the public into thinking that they are actually working on something that we might actually drive in the future.

[Greg woulf]

I'm ok with them moving the engineers over. The volt is an electric car, the engineers in the fuel cell research area are experts in electric cars. It's a different type of car from the frame on up.

The brakes, steering and other systems will all be electronics. The people that built the Sequel are the most experienced with the advantages and challenges of putting that into a car.

I hope that they're not bringing them back to force a fuel cell in there, even if they've made a huge breakthrough and have a fuel cell that's cheap and long lasting. I don't see fuel cells as the way to go, as long as they use Hydrogen at least.

[amazingdrx]

no mention of the serial hybrid Volt? Is it dead already? Killed by the fuel cell as was the eV1.

[Beek]

You know that hydrogen fuel cell cars is a scam when the head of Bosch, the largest engine parts manufacturer in the world, says that hydrogen is the future, and does not even acknowledge plug-ins in his speech.

[kim]

What's wrong with fuel cells? they work. Are you just thinking they are too expensive?

[George]

Well, expensive, inefficient, and requiring a massive investment in new infrastructure that keeps us tied to the oil giants... aside from that, they're peachy.

[Greg woulf]

I don't see anything wrong with fuel cells that couldn't be fixed eventually. I think the problem lies in the fuel they'd need to run them.

Just relying on any fuel seems a step back from electrics. Hydrogen especially seems to be too expensive to pursue as aggressively as the world has. It takes more energy to release Hydrogen, than you get out of it.

If we have the batteries, then that energy could go right into the car, and there's almost no comparable infrastructure cost between the two. Electric fits right in, Hydrogen we need to figure out ways to produce, transport, store and dispense safely.

[Calamity]

Yeah hydrogen as a replacement for petroleum fuel is quite irrational. But the way it sounds... hydrogen. hy-dro-gen...
let's face it, it's just damn sexy!

[Dan Petit]

I am an educator for auto shop techs whom want to learn diagnostics with a very sophisticated scan system. Doing this for several years now, it is clear to me that GM does everything it can for the processors in your vehicles to perform as best as they can, given the many cases of service-neglect most owners are often themselves honestly unaware of or uneducated about.
In analysing the behaviour of waveforms of the various datastreams (the "brainwaves" of everything the processors are thinking), I can assure you that there has been an incredible amount of the very finest of design-safety built into General Motors vehicles. You can watch the processors compensating and learning what to do when something "unexpected" happens.
I do not work for GM, but what I greatly respect about GM is that GM provides the independent technician the MOST HELPFULNESS when it is time to look at what attention the GM vehicle needs. I only wish I could get an advanced view of what datastreams will be available to us on the Chevrolet Volt someday.
Toyota Prius datastreams in the Hybrid Battery sub-group are pretty interesting. (Individual cell-group temps, peak temp cumulative times, internal resistances, max and min voltages, "inhale [cooling] air temperature" and etc.)
I think it would be great if there were a cell-group design which looks like a carton of cigarettes in size (that you could just pull out for servicing), have a green, yellow, and red LED diagnostic display for what is internally irregular in a subgroup of cells, and, to "put the icing-on-the-cake" let the design arrays be very service friendly, no matter what the costs for the first few model years. Many of us are certainly willing to "help" with any "Beta" imperfections which may occur.
No other manufacturer is as service friendly with the terrific number of datastreams in the processors as is GM. I require that at least 50 percent of the test/diagnosis/seminar subject vehicles in my courses (to techs) be General Motors Vehicles. If you are able to buy a Chevrolet Volt at some point in the future (and it most certainly will be available), be confident that the time that it needed to take GM to provide you that option is based solidly and concretely on the requirements of reliable industry standards, of which GM has always impressed me.
Dan Petit
ASE Certified L-1 Advanced
Engine Educator,
Genisys Waveforms.