By Charles Freese
Executive Director, Fuel Cell Activities
One of the most difficult things about working with a new technology is helping people understand the “dollars and sense” associated with it. This is especially true when the technology is one that can be demonstrated, but is still a few years from commercial introduction. Take hydrogen fuel cell vehicles for example.
In 2007 GM deployed Project Driveway, a fleet of more than 100 Chevrolet Equinox fuel cell electric vehicles. Project Driveway is still the largest and most experienced fleet of its kind anywhere in the world with more than one million miles of accumulated driving by real consumers. The vehicles were hand-built, making them very expensive, but the builds helped establish a new supplier community and resolved many technical challenges.
While the Project Driveway vehicles still amaze almost everyone who drives one, they use technology that is now four years old and was essentially a proof of concept. Ordinarily, we wouldn’t put early vehicles in the hands of real customers until a program reaches pilot production. Project Driveway’s purpose is to gain customer feedback, better understand the technology and evaluate the fuel infrastructure. More importantly, these vehicles were intended to prove to the world that hydrogen fuel cell vehicles can become practical solutions for future transportation needs. It is a testament to the skill of the development team and the capability of the technology that these vehicles are refined enough to be used daily and meet or exceed customer expectations.
We are often asked how much these vehicles cost and we are consistently careful to avoid putting a price tag on a vehicle that people can experience but not own. Putting it bluntly, the cost of a demonstration vehicle is neither the right measure nor the right question. Even prototype vehicles with conventional propulsion systems are prohibitively expensive at this point in their development cycle. The important cost question should focus on what the technology will cost when it enters production and what value the technology provides the customer, including energy efficiency, zero emissions, improved performance, reliability, fuel range, short refueling times, and consumer acceptance.
With quantifiable learnings from the Equinox fuel cell fleet and a strong technology development effort, the fuel cell program left R&D about a year ago and became part of Powertrain, where it is treated like any pre-production program when it comes to seeking efficiency, cost reduction, design for manufacturability, and other elements of a production program. It is still expensive, but the costs are coming down dramatically. Our next-generation fuel cell architecture is 220 pounds lighter, uses about half the parts and roughly a third of the precious metals, compared to the still-impressive Equinox demonstration vehicles.
In some ways, we are a victim our own success. The Chevy Equinox fuel cell is a great car, but it is a demonstration vehicle with aging technology and high cost. The next-generation fuel cell system is much less expensive but is not yet to the point where we have vehicles on the road. The graphic below shows the significant physical differences and the tale of the tape between the Project Driveway propulsion system and the next-generation system. The things we are learning will continue to lower fuel cell system costs and we expect the fuel cell system will become cost competitive with other comparably capable advanced powertrain solutions. All these technologies have a common goal: to quickly complete a couple production learning cycles that will help bring costs down. Then the technology must be used in enough cars to achieve necessary economies of scale.
For today, we must help people understand that the fuel cell vehicles they can drive now would still be out of reach for most buyers. Fuel cells must cross the same “valley of death,” that every new technology must endure. GM is developing advanced hydrogen fuel cell designs that are clearly on a path toward affordable hydrogen-powered vehicles. As we move from petroleum to other energy sources we must consider the true technology costs and stay the course to achieve our long-term objectives.
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