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GM Announces Plans to Build Its First Fleet of 100-Plus H2 Fuel Cell "Equinox" SUVs

DANA POINT, CA SEPT. 17 – In a one-two punch, General Motors announced last week it will build and distribute a fleet of more than 100 fuel cell-powered Chevrolet "Equinox" sport utility vehicles and will place them with customers next fall.

The announcement and static display of the Equinox Fuel Cell came during week-long test drives of its more radical fuel cell sister vehicle, the "Sequel," arranged by GM for some 50 journalists on the Marine Corps’ Camp Pendleton base here in Southern California (See H&FCL Bulletin Sept. 13).

Both cars share essentially the same fourth-generation PEM fuel cell system, but the Equinox Fuel Cell has a smaller 10,000 psi compressed hydrogen storage system and consequently less range. Zero-60 mph acceleration is a respectable 12 seconds.

While the "Sequel" is a clean-sheet concept car designed around the fuel cell system, the "Equinox," in production as a gasoline i.c. SUV since 2002, represents GM’s parallel approach of fitting a fuel cell into an existing vehicle.

GM says its deployment plan, "Project Driveway," represents "the first meaningful market test of fuel cell vehicles anywhere." The company plans to place the vehicles with drivers in different driving environments in California, the New York metro area and in Washington DC.

The Equinox Fuel Cell is a fully functional crossover, engineered for 50,000 miles of lifetime, able to start and operate in sub-freezing temperatures and is expected to meet all applicable 2007 Federal safety standards. It is equipped with many standard safety features such as driver and passenger frontal air bags, roof rail side impact air bags, ABS braking, StabiliTrak stability enhancement technology and others.

With both cars, GM "is demonstrating its commitment to hydrogen fuel cells as the answer for taking the automobile out of the environmental debate and reducing our dependence on petroleum," said Larry Burns, GM’s vice president for research & development and strategic planning. "The Equinox Fuel Cell is a real-world vehicle with real-world performance," added Chevrolet’s general manager Ed Peper.

(A full report on GM’s announcements will appear in the upcoming October online and print issues of The Hydrogen & Fuel Cell Letter.)

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