Published on October 12th, 2012 | by Christopher DeMorro

GM Still Aiming For Fuel Cell Vehicle Sales By 2016

Hydrogen is the quiet giant of alternative fuels. It is by far the most promising alternative fuel in a variety of ways, but there are a number of obstacles to widespread adoption. Yet major automakers have continued plowing forward with hydrogen fuel cell research, and GM is at the forefront. The General says it is on track to deliver hydrogen fuel cell vehicles to dealerships by 2016. Is it bluster, or are they for real?

GM has delivered hydrogen fuel cell vehicles to a wide variety of customers for testing as part of Project Driveway. GM has also given a couple of hydrogen vehicles to the Navy to try out as well. Yet it seems like GM has been testing hydrogen fuel cell vehicles foreverrrrr…and the testing will probably continue.

Yet GM is holding tight (at least for now) to the 2015/2016 timeframe for the delivery of actual production vehicles to dealerships, the same time frame as automakers like Toyota. Granted, sales will be limited to highly localized geographic areas with an established hydrogen fueling infrastructure. There has been talk of building hydrogen highways up and down the coastlines of the U.S., but so far no such fueling system exists. If hydrogen vehicles are to make any market penetration at all, there will have to be places to refuel them.

Fuel cell vehicles will also have to come down in price. While automakers like Honda are leasing limited quantities of their FCX Clarity hydrogen fuel cell vehicles to the public, the cost can be around $850 a month. That is more than most people can afford to spend on a car. Then there are companies like Hyundai, who have pledged to bring hydrogen cars to market, but keep moving the date back.

Can GM bring the price down, while building the infrastructure up, in order to get hydrogen fuel cell vehicles to market in the next four years? I think it can be done, and should be done, especially given that electric cars aren’t panning out as hoped. But what say you? Is GM and other automakers serious about bringing fuel cell vehicles to market soon? Or are they just stringing us along?

Source: EarthTechling

MAKE SOLAR WORK FOR YOU!

Next, use your Solar Report to get the best quote!

Tags: Chevy Equinox FCEV, Chevy Equinox fuel cell, Chevy Equinox hydrogen fuel cell, fuel cell vehicles, General Motors, GM, GM hydrogen fuel cells, GM hydrogen vehicle sales, Honda FCX Clarity, hydrogen fuel cell, hydrogen vehicle sales, hydrogen vehicles, Navy hydrogen vehicles, Project Driveway, Toyota hydrogen fuel cell, US Navy

About the Author

Christopher DeMorro A writer and gearhead who loves all things automotive, from hybrids to HEMIs, Chris can be found wrenching or writing- or esle, he's running, because he's one of those crazy people who gets enjoyment from running insane distances.

Jason Carpp

I think they’re just stringing us on, as usual. They have good ideas, but they don’t follow through.
http://gravatar.com/zivbnd Ziv

I think that they will be able to build phenomenal fuel cell vehicles, but it will still cost more than $100,000 to build each one of them in 2016. By 2020 they might be able to get the price down to $80,000 each. But you will still be stuck with the fact that hydrogen has huge negatives when you look at using it for more than a handful of test vehicles. Plus batteries just keep getting cheaper and lighter, by the time fuel cells begin to be delivered in 2016 the price per kWh will probably have dropped from around $300-$400 down to $215-$286 if the current trend of 8% improvements per year continues, as is likely. And that doesn’t account for the fact that it is very likely that there will be some sort of rapid advancement in price and weight over the next few years, given the unprecedented amount of research that is going on.
$200 per kWh means the Leaf’s pack drops from $9000 to $4800, the Volts drops from $6400 to $3400 and a real world 200 mile AER with 60 kWh goes from $24,000 to $12,000. That is going to be the death knell for fuel cell cars. BEV’s aren’t where they need to be today, and they won’t be by 2016, but it will be increasingly clear that it is a matter of a few years before we have 240 mile AER BEV’s that cost less than 15% more than an equivalent ICE, and fueling the BEV will always cost less than a third what it costs to fuel an ICE and less than half what it costs to fuel a hybrid.
Fuel cells have always been tomorrows technology, and probably always will be.
Russell Dee

Hydrogen fuel cell energy are based on platinum, which is very expensive. However scientists have just found a way to use nickel instead of platinum as the driver of hydrogen fuel cell energy. This will bring down the cost of producing hydrogen fuel cell energy.

http://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2012/05/120511122232.htm

I like the battery-based idea to produced energy too but with this new method to use nickel as the conduit to produce energy instead of platinum in a hydrogen fuel system this could make a hydrogen fuel cell automobile cost effective.

Any responses?
Pingback: Fuel Cell Dispatch()
Ziv

I was under the impression that the only way they were going to be able to reduce the price of a fuel cell vehicle to $100,000 was by eliminating the use of platinum. Even then, platinum was just 60% of the cost of most of the fuel cells in production the rest of the vehicle was expensive as well. Why would anyone want a fuel cell that costs $100,000 when you can get a better performing car that has 235 milee range like a Tesla S already in production. Can you imagine how much better the BEV’s will be by the time fuel cell cars come out in limited numbers in 2016? Fast charging a 235 mile range BEV to 80% will take just minutes thereby eliminating the only advantage a fuel cell has.
(sorry about the typos, I can’t see the right side of the response that I am making…)
Holly Rose

Lots of misinformation here, lots of guessing, conjecture and old falacies. I would suggest people actually talk to the automakers, (even you author) because if you are basing any of your beliefs on “who killed the electric car” or even 1 ~ 2 year old news, it is outdated.
– Platinum loading near todays ICE catylist
– Honda Clarity lease $600, not $850
– FC vehicles aleady at 300+ mile range
– Under 5 minute refueling, simultaneous (4 cars at once) at same station. Try that with level III
– Station costs down 1/2, size down 1/3, capacity up 2 ~ 4 X
– Senseless fight betwen two technologies, complementary. Each with pros and cons, achieving same goals.
Pingback: The Week in EVs and More | Earth's Energy()
Pingback: US Army Could be silent partner in GM Honda fuel cell collaboration()