General Motors and SAIC Promote Fuel Cell Technology

The Chevrolet Equinox Fuel Cell Vehicle



It really isn't hard to understand why GM is a colossal failure as of late. The latest headlines report how General Motors has found a new partner to further the myth that fuel cell technology will actually become a viable automotive option. A whopping ten vehicles will be built by the Shanghai Automotive Industry Corporation for the purpose of carting around VIP's at the upcoming World Expo.

Current fuel cell vehicles cost around one million dollars apiece. Thus, when I say ten vehicles, it is easy to understand the low number. GM has one fuel cell vehicle that it is pouring money into, namely the Chevy Equinox. What is incomprehensible is the fact that GM continues to pump money into this dead end technology in light of their impending bankruptcy.

Consider the following:

1 - Fuel cell vehicles currently cost one million dollars apiece to build.
2 - There is no hydrogen refueling infrastucture in the US.
3 - Each hydrogen fuel station costs millions and can only fill a very limited number of autos daily.
4 - The fuel cell stack only lasts a few years before needing replaced. Of course, the fuel cell is the costliest component of the car.

None of the obstacles listed above are easily remedied and none will be solved any time soon. Hydrogen powered cars could be one of the biggest hoaxes of the 21st century. It's time the auto manufucturers abandon them completely and concentrate on the many other viable alternate energy vehicles available now. Electric vehicles, plug-in hybrid EV's, CNG and LPG vehicles, bio-diesel and ethanol driven cars and trucks are all possible today and would help us eliminate our need for foreign oil. Let's mass produce these cars and drive down the cost of their respective technologies.

From Green Car Congress:

In Shanghai, General Motors Corp. and Shanghai Automotive Industry Corp. Group (SAIC) launched SAIC’s Shanghai Brand Fuel Cell Vehicle, powered by GM’s fourth-generation fuel cell propulsion technology. The vehicle from SAIC uses the same 700 bar high-pressure hydrogen fuel cell system adopted in the Chevrolet Equinox Fuel Cell. (Earlier post.)

Ten Shanghai Brand Fuel Cell Vehicles will be built. The zero-emission high-tech vehicles will join the Equinox Fuel Cell as part of a fleet of both GM and SAIC vehicles to shuttle VIPs at World Expo 2010 Shanghai.

The Shanghai and Chevrolet Equinox Fuel Cell vehicles will be featured in the most extensive fuel cell demonstration program ever conducted in China. This follows the government’s call for the creation of a sustainable transportation system. GM supports China’s move toward sustainability, and we are providing our latest fuel cell technology in line with our overall strategy of in China, with China, for China.

—GM Group Vice President and GM Asia Pacific President Nick Reilly

SAIC engineers have been co-located at GM facilities in Germany and GM engineers have been co-located at SAIC facilities in China to produce the vehicles. The original Equinox fuel cell propulsion system has been modified and improved to fit into the Shanghai Brand Fuel Cell Vehicle.

GM and SAIC are the exclusive joint global automobile partner of World Expo 2010 Shanghai.

The two automakers, which operate eight joint ventures in China, earlier signed a pair of agreements to promote advanced vehicle technology. Their Shanghai GM joint venture began selling the Buick LaCrosse Eco-Hybrid last year as part of its Drive to Green strategy. China is also slated to become one of the first markets for the Chevrolet Volt extended-range electric vehicle in 2011.