Hydrogen is Hot

Chevy’s fuel-cell SUV zips around

Las Vegas

I knew that GM had built real, road-ready hydrogen fuel cell vehicles. But I didn’t really believe it until I saw one, and drove it.

The Chevy Equinox I piloted—one of about one hundred that GM will put on the road later this year—looked as polished and user-friendly as any new car on the lot. It’s a comfy, soccer-mom/dad vehicle that seems like any other small SUV until you turn the ignition—err, I mean the key. There is no ignition.

That cranks on a hydrogen fuel cell stack that instantly produces enough electricity to power six houses—or to propel the Equinox like a rocket. Its electric motor cranks out the torque as soon as you hit the gas—err, I mean the accelerator. If you think electric motors are wimpy based on how hybrids drive, that’s only because hybrids have very wimpy small motors. With a full-sized model, you’ve got full-sized power. My biggest problem driving around Vegas was to not go too fast and cause an accident.

 

The Equinox is not a sports car—but it has plenty of power to zip around traffic and haul furniture or kids. That’s what it will do later this year as part of GM’s project driveway—in which regular folk can apply to take the car, for free, for a few months and report back on their experience. GM will also be loaning them out to journalists, policy makers, and celebrities—maybe in time for the Oscars?

And they say the hydrogen-powered Equinox could be a real car by 2010. (though you’ll have to live near the handful of hydrogen fueling stations—mostly in California) for it to be practical. The vehicles in the current fleet of hand-built prototypes are crazy expensive. (GM won’t say, but it’s safe to guess several hundred thousand each.) But GM says that the production vehicles will be affordable. It’s no accident, they say, that they are first introducing fuel cells in their budget-minded Chevy division. (Although GM also announced a new Cadillac model.) The standard gas-powered Equinox starts at around $22,000.—Sean Captain

Comments

[Roger B. Frick]

Nice thing about electrics is that when you push the go pedal you have full power NOW! Not in a little while, not when everything spins up, but immediately. Can you imagine having a 400 hp motor (or 4 100 hp motors) at your disposal?
As for me, by the time all that will be available it way behind me and I will be a passenger always wondering where we are going.

[LJ]

This has to be by a huge margin the most innovative and important piece of technology showed at CES this year.
Far more interesting and important then any cell phone or media device.

A fully road worthy and reliable fuel cell vehicle is something that has been vaporware for the past 20 years until now.

Now if only they can manufacture this at a price most people can afford under 40K would be nice.

It seems that maybe the fuel cell car just might become reality and not be a weenie mobile.

Though the hydrogen needs to come from renewable or nuclear sources ie carbon free for it to really make a difference.

Also storage costs need to come down the metal hydrides used to store a usable amount.
Still if I had the money I'd want to get one now.

[ExEail.bg]

I really don't understand why do you all think this is huge... Converting hydrogen to electricity may be a clean process, but getting hydrogen in the first place is rather energy

[ExE]

demanding process. Accelerating fast implies one thing for me - wasting more energy when braking. i'm not sure what's the efficiency of the convertion from kinetic to electric energy, but i doubt it will be high...

So, by the end of the day it's just another vehicle that uses our limited-supply energy resources. If i'm not mistaken honda already lauched a car that comes with a fuel station converting netural gas to hydrogen...

[Colorado]

You should tell gm to give the test vehicles to the workers in Colorado mountain area...(where there is mud, dirt, ice, and High hills everywhere) rig worker who drive in the mountains and ruff terrain all the time to really test out the vehicle . Not policy makers and celebrities. I'm sorry but here where the workin man works to get to a job, then do the job, will have a far better judgment than any celebe or policy maker who drive drunk weekends. People who don't have the type of jobs what we have have little effect on what we drive. Look at Colorado trucks vs California trucks, I'm sorry but over all our trucks are made for ruff terrain, theres are usually for show. So let the people who really use power test the power.
For everyone that complains about the moving forward of science with all the negative commenting all the time. Some times you have to go back down the hill to make it up the hill. Hydrogen is a step forward, maybe gettin it is a step backwards I don't know, let the engineers do what they went to school for. If you really hate the hydrogen idea, come up with a new alternative vehicle idea, produce it, market it, and sell it, until then shut it.