[EricR42]

I am one of the NY Project Driveway drivers. I can say that the fuel cell Equinox is a fantastic vehicle. Smooth, snappy acceleration (I timed 0-60 in the 9.5 second range) and very quiet. This is to be expected from an electric powertrain.

Regarding the "why hydrogen?" question, the main reasons are 3 minute fillups and scalability to different size vehicles. PHEV is great if you don't plan on exceeding your charge during the day and are satisfied with a relatively small car (the relationship between battery weight and vehicle size reaches a point of diminishing returns) . Gasoline range extenders like in the Volt are a great mid-term solution. But hydrogen is truly renewable, and can be made in a truly renewable manner. With gas prices the way they are currently, hydrogen is cheaper on a cost per mile basis than gasoline, even when generating hydrogen in the least efficient manner (water electrolysis).

To illustrate with my experience, over the course of my last fillup, I averaged 54 miles per kg of hydrogen. This was combined stop-and-go, highway and city driving. My understanding of the cost of hydrogen via water electrolysis is about $8/kg. The gasoline Equinox gets about 19 or 20 mpg. So, although a kg of hydrogen costs twice as much as 1 gallon of gas, the fuel cell variant gets more than twice the mileage. Generating hydrogen from steam reforming natural gas (the most common means of generating hydrogen), the cost per kg will be between $3.00 and $5.00.

With regard to scalability, a fuel cell stack can be used to power everything from portable electronics to a large ship. The one in the Equinox is GM's 4th generation. The Provoq has the 5th gen which is half the size, and 80% the power. And the 4th gen powertrain generates 236 pounds of torque.

One big impediment to widespread commercialization of fuel cells is that local municipalities don't know how to permit the refueling stations. I am working on this issue now with my town, but it will take a serious grass-roots efforts to help (or convince) the municipalities to create the permitting process now, so that these processes will be in place as vehicle production begins to scale up.

- Eric