News From the Auto Industry

Burns said it straight. They are working to create “affordable, profitable, high-volume fuel cell vehicles.” He’s talking about mass production in 2010. Lest that start a train of thought about the bad sequel to 2001, realize that that’s just 7.5 years from now. Burns et. al. are working on gasoline reformation, transforming natural gas into hydrogen, and transforming water (through electricity) into hydrogen. “We want to remove the automobile from the environmental debate,” Burns says. The exhaust is [H.sub.2]O, not something troubling to environmentalists. But said another way: There is a monosource of energy for powering cars and trucks right now: Oil. Not only are there environmental implications of burning that in internal combustion or Diesel engines, but look only to the Middle East to realize the economic implications and potentially destabilizing ramifications. Fuel cell vehicles can change that debate, as well.

Thus the importance of the technology incorporated into this S-10: The gasoline reformer would enable the user to refuel at any gasoline station, just as drivers do with conventionally powered vehicles. Although the vehicle represents a milestone, Burns and other GM engineers are quick to point out that the focus is on the technology and not on its mobility.

Burns says the stationary reformers - or even water electrolyzers that use electricity to separate hydrogen from water - also could be placed in the home, so that consumers would have a variety of options when it comes to how their hydrogen is created and distributed.

“You can’t conclude who is going to win the race (marathon) at mile six,” Burns claims. Although the Japanese have made meaningful strides with hybrids, GM says serious efforts only can be considered when alternative-powered vehicles become cost-competitive with today’s standard-powered equivalents, when alternative propulsion vehicles are economically viable at high-volume production and when alternative vehicles truly are “sustainable.”

The importance of the gasoline-reforming fuel cell, say GM scientists on hand for the event, is that it answers perhaps the largest concern regarding near-term fuel-cell commercialization: There currently is no infrastructure to deliver the hydrogen required to operate fuel cells. Moreover, the transition period between hydrogen fuel and today’s fuels will require public refueling facilities to handle both.