General Motors Fuel Cell Future
NSAP Interviews
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I have been working very hard lately on getting another interview for the GMI Editorial. After many phone calls and E-Mails, I was successful. Since gas prices are so high and keep rising, I thought that it was appropriate to interview someone at General Motors in the alternative fuel department. I was fortunate enough to get an interview with Tim Vail, Fuel Cell Director for General Motors. The interview took place on Thursday via telephone. This is hopefully the start of many awesome things we want to bring to the GMI Editorial, including more interviews.
What follows is a compressed essay style version of the full interview:
We know that lately every car company has been pumping out hybrid vehicles, but General Motors has yet to mass-produce any. Could it be that The General is ahead of time and forgetting about hybrids? Not necessarily. There is a lot of controversy about whether or not fuel cells are the right way to go for future fuel efficiency, but GM firmly believes that it is the right way to go. By spending billions of dollars on the program, they are proving that.
Just because GM is spending a lot of time and money on fuel cells does not mean that they are forgetting about hybrids. By the year 2006, GM is going to have high-volume hybrid GM trucks, not just a few like today. GM’s is using hybrids as a “stepping-stone” for future fuel cells vehicles to come along. Along side the hybrids GM will have Displacement On Demand (DOD) on 2005 SUV’s, which give the vehicles 10-15% better fuel economy.
Will we lose performance with fuel cells? With the fuel cells that GM is developing, more than likely they will not lose any power, if anything, they will gain power! With a fuel cell there is electric traction, which produces torque which would allow for more normal-like power in the vehicles.
Are they all going to be spaced-out / weird designs?” Another thing that worries people about fuel cells is that the ones we have seen are not really the most beautiful designs. There's no need to worry, according to GM, they can put a fuel cell into normal-looking vehicles. Another option is to use the “skateboard platform” like the Autonomy concept. If that was the case, a consumer would be able to have the vehicle custom-built to a choice of many configurations. Another effect that a fuel cell has on a vehicle’s design is that it allows more room on the vehicle. Because a fuel cell is much smaller than a combustion engine, the vehicle can use the room that the combustion takes for something else. (Passenger room, storage space, weight reduction).
Where exactly are we going to fill up with hydrogen? Well, GM has that covered too. They are working with energy companies such as Shell to get hydrogen stations running in the United States.
How does a fuel cell work? Well, in fuel cell vehicles, there is an on-board compressed hydrogen. That hydrogen produces water and electricity. Water being the by-product. The electricity the cell produces, along with electric traction powers the vehicle.
General Motors is planning to start these vehicles in the next 4-5 years. Then early next decade have then widely available to the public.
NSAP Interviews
I have been working very hard lately on getting another interview for the GMI Editorial. After many phone calls and E-Mails, I was successful. Since gas prices are so high and keep rising, I thought that it was appropriate to interview someone at General Motors in the alternative fuel department. I was fortunate enough to get an interview with Tim Vail, Fuel Cell Director for General Motors. The interview took place on Thursday via telephone. This is hopefully the start of many awesome things we want to bring to the GMI Editorial, including more interviews.
What follows is a compressed essay style version of the full interview:
We know that lately every car company has been pumping out hybrid vehicles, but General Motors has yet to mass-produce any. Could it be that The General is ahead of time and forgetting about hybrids? Not necessarily. There is a lot of controversy about whether or not fuel cells are the right way to go for future fuel efficiency, but GM firmly believes that it is the right way to go. By spending billions of dollars on the program, they are proving that.
Just because GM is spending a lot of time and money on fuel cells does not mean that they are forgetting about hybrids. By the year 2006, GM is going to have high-volume hybrid GM trucks, not just a few like today. GM’s is using hybrids as a “stepping-stone” for future fuel cells vehicles to come along. Along side the hybrids GM will have Displacement On Demand (DOD) on 2005 SUV’s, which give the vehicles 10-15% better fuel economy.
Will we lose performance with fuel cells? With the fuel cells that GM is developing, more than likely they will not lose any power, if anything, they will gain power! With a fuel cell there is electric traction, which produces torque which would allow for more normal-like power in the vehicles.
Are they all going to be spaced-out / weird designs?” Another thing that worries people about fuel cells is that the ones we have seen are not really the most beautiful designs. There's no need to worry, according to GM, they can put a fuel cell into normal-looking vehicles. Another option is to use the “skateboard platform” like the Autonomy concept. If that was the case, a consumer would be able to have the vehicle custom-built to a choice of many configurations. Another effect that a fuel cell has on a vehicle’s design is that it allows more room on the vehicle. Because a fuel cell is much smaller than a combustion engine, the vehicle can use the room that the combustion takes for something else. (Passenger room, storage space, weight reduction).
Where exactly are we going to fill up with hydrogen? Well, GM has that covered too. They are working with energy companies such as Shell to get hydrogen stations running in the United States.
How does a fuel cell work? Well, in fuel cell vehicles, there is an on-board compressed hydrogen. That hydrogen produces water and electricity. Water being the by-product. The electricity the cell produces, along with electric traction powers the vehicle.
General Motors is planning to start these vehicles in the next 4-5 years. Then early next decade have then widely available to the public.
