{"id":474679,"date":"2010-03-23T17:55:36","date_gmt":"2010-03-23T21:55:36","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/blog.caranddriver.com\/?p=17533"},"modified":"2010-03-23T17:55:36","modified_gmt":"2010-03-23T21:55:36","slug":"gm-continues-project-driveway-fuel-cell-development-program-phases-in-second-gen-technology","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/mereja.media\/index\/474679","title":{"rendered":"GM Continues Project Driveway Fuel-Cell Development Program, Phases in Second-Gen Technology"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"The<\/a><\/p>\n

Who will never, ever kill an electric car again? GM. Clearly having learned from the EV1 public-relations nightmare, GM proudly announced that it will \u201crepurpose\u201d most of the 119 surviving Equinox Fuel Cell vehicles it produced for its ambitious Project Driveway program<\/a> as it develops its second-generation fuel-cell powertrains.<\/p>\n

During the last three years, Project Driveway has placed hydrogen-fueled Equinoxes into the hands of real-world consumers and public agencies in New York, Los Angeles, and Washington, D.C., for stints lasting from a few days to several months. (One even spent about a week in my own driveway<\/a>.) Project Driveway participants have helped GM log a total of 1.2 million miles on its fleet of Equinox Fuel Cells, which would be a lot of laps around the General\u2019s Milford proving grounds. Now, as these vehicles are handed back over to GM one by one, many of them are being fitted with various components and fuel\/power management upgrades that GM hopes will make it into its much smaller, more efficient second-gen fuel cells, which it has shown in \u201cproduction intent\u201d form but are still a ways from actual production en masse.<\/p>\n

<\/span><\/p>\n

Soon after receiving new vinyl tattoos covering half of their bodies, being stripped of all Equinox badging, and receiving their sundry powertrain updates, which will be made on a per-vehicle basis as new bits and programs are readied, the freshened vehicles (rechristened \u201cChevrolet Fuel Cell Electric Vehicles\u201d) will find their way back into the driveways of real-world drivers in the three aforementioned regions. To kick off this new phase of Project Driveway, GM introduced biologist and committed environmentalist Stephanie White from West Los Angeles and handed her the keys to the first of the repurposed vehicles, to become her transportation companion for the next six months. GM declined to state which of the numerous powertrain updates were installed on White\u2019s vehicle, but it did say that they are several upgrades away from being able to install the actual \u201cproduction\u201d second-gen fuel-cell powertrain, which is about half the size and roughly 60 percent of the mass of the original system, whilst being far less reliant on the expensive platinum used in the fuel-cell membranes.<\/p>\n

While some might expect that GM would use the new and improved Equinox or some other current GM chassis to test out these various new technologies, using the old vehicles, boxy and inelegant as they may be (and which are rumored to have cost at least half a million bucks apiece), is a smart move. For starters, this represents recycling at the highest level and thus avoids the wrath of the enviro-nazis that crucified the wasteful ways of \u201cOld GM\u201d so viciously in the past. But more importantly for development purposes, the unchanged weight and aerodynamic properties of the host vehicles allows GM to gather apples-to-apples comparisons for each of the new bits they install. Kudos, GM, for being smart this time.<\/p>\n

Related posts:<\/p>\n

    \n
  1. GM\u2019s Fuel-Cell Program Soldiers On<\/a><\/li>\n
  2. Toyota Expands Fuel-Cell Program with 100 FCHV-adv Prototypes for U.S.<\/a><\/li>\n
  3. Pump It Up: We Refuel a Hydrogen Fuel-Cell Vehicle<\/a><\/li>\n<\/ol>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

    Who will never, ever kill an electric car again? GM. Clearly having learned from the EV1 public-relations nightmare, GM proudly announced that it will \u201crepurpose\u201d most of the 119 surviving Equinox Fuel Cell vehicles it produced for its ambitious Project Driveway program as it develops its second-generation fuel-cell powertrains. During the last three years, Project […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":6402,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[16,7],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-474679","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-mobile","category-news"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/mereja.media\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/474679","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/mereja.media\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/mereja.media\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mereja.media\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/6402"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mereja.media\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=474679"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/mereja.media\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/474679\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/mereja.media\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=474679"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mereja.media\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=474679"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mereja.media\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=474679"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}