KEY POINTS:
General Motors aims to have fuel-cell vehicles, which run on hydrogen and emit only water vapor, in showrooms by 2012, a target more aggressive than other carmakers working on similar technology.
Larry Burns, GM's vice-president of research and development, said:
"I don't know how many
of them we'll make at the time. Post-2012, the goal is to ramp up production to about 1 million vehicles a year worldwide.''
Burns was speaking to reporters in Tarrytown, New York, after having driven the fuel-cell powered Chevrolet Sequel 482km on one tank of hydrogen.
"This was the first fuel-cell vehicle to drive 300 miles on one tank of hydrogen on public roads,'' Burns said. "This truly represents the new DNA of automotive technology.''
The Chevrolet Sequel, an SUV with a tank that can carry 8kg of hydrogen, or the equivalent of 16 gallons of gasoline, is powered with lithium-ion batteries.
Burns said the major challenges in bringing fuel-cell vehicles to mass production include further development of lithium-ion batteries, lowering the cost of the technology and building infrastructure for fuelling the vehicles.
"We need to bring the cost down, we hope to make it cost-competitive with the regular internal combustion engines,'' Burns said. "We need a network of hydrogen fuelling stations and we need advanced engineering work to have consistency of temperature throughout the battery pack.''
Industry experts have expressed concern about the lithium-ion batteries, which are used in laptops, because they have a tendency to overheat.
GM plans to place 100 models of the next generation of its fuel-cell vehicle, called the Chevrolet Equinox, with consumers by the end of 2008.
The carmaker is also working on an electric vehicle, called the Chevrolet Volt, with a production target of 2009.
Other carmakers such as DaimlerChrysler AG, Toyota and Honda Motor have said they do not expect their fuel-cell vehicles to hit showrooms until the middle of the next decade.
GM, which is trying to overcome its reputation for focusing on gas-guzzling SUVs, is making Chevrolet the nameplate for its electric and fuel-cell vehicles.
"We have the Chevrolet brand in many different countries. That's one reason we are using that name,'' Burns said. "We also want to position these alternative systems as something affordable to everyone instead of associating it with an upscale brand.''