GM To Put 100 Hydrogen SUVs On Road By 2007 - $1 Million Each - LA Times

[hatrack]

EDIT

GM's initial fleet of 100 will go to customers including government officials and business leaders in Los Angeles, New York and Washington. "For them to show this much progress is serious," said Bruce Belzowski, assistant research scientist at the University of Michigan Transportation Research Institute in Ann Arbor. "It builds more confidence in the government and the public that these things are viable."

GM is trying to counter criticism that its vehicles use too much gasoline, contributing to environmental problems such as global warming and heightening U.S. dependence on oil from the Middle East. "We have this undeserved image of being an environmental antichrist," Lutz said.

ED. - emphasis added - :eyes:

GM rivals DaimlerChrysler, Toyota Motor Corp. and Honda Motor Co. also are developing fuel-cell vehicles in response to customer and government demands. Buyers are more interested in fuel economy amid the high gasoline prices of the last two years, and new government rules require less pollution and better mileage. The vehicles aren't yet commercially feasible. Honda has said it costs at least $1 million to build each hydrogen-powered car. There are few hydrogen filling stations in the U.S., limiting the vehicles' range.

GM previously had a fleet of about a dozen fuel-cell models in operation, none driven by retail customers. The hope is that showing off GM's environmental technology in high-profile, coastal markets will attract publicity and help damp some criticism, Lutz said. The automaker hasn't determined whether it will lease the fuel-cell vehicles, which are based on the Chevrolet Equinox SUV, or use some other arrangement, said Courtney Moody, who manages marketing for the program. The models will arrive in the third quarter of next year, she said.


EDIT

http://www.latimes.com/business/la-fi-autos18sep18,1,7143378.story?coll=la-headlines-business

[Deja Q]

1. Best of luck to GM. With luck, the cost to manufacture will go down.

And quickly enough so everybody can replace oil guzzing garbage with clean hyodrogen heroes. :D

[flyingfysh]

2. how is hydrogen a solution for anything?

It is an energy transmission medium, not an energy source. How is it going to be produced? By electricity from coal-fired plants?

[maxsolomon]

3. wow! problem soved, GM!

i'm trading in my 15 year old saab for a Canyonero!



Can you name the truck with four wheel drive,
Smells like a steak, and seats thirty five?
Canyonero! Canyonero!
Well, it goes real slow with the hammer down
It's the country-fried truck endorsed by a clown
Canyonero! Canyonero!
Hey, hey!
Twelve yards long, two lanes wide,
Sixty five tons of American pride!
Canyonero! Canyonero!
Top of the line in utility sports,
Unexplained fires are a matter for the courts!
Canyonero! Canyonero!
She blinds everybody with her super high beams
She's a squirrel-squashin', deer-smackin' drivin' machine
Canyonero! Canyonero! Canyonero!
Whoa, Canyonero! Whoa!

[midnight armadillo]

7. Is that a 900 or 9000?

A saabophile wants to know...

[maxsolomon]

8. 91 900s, alloys, dk. gray

i have people ask me where can they get an old saab in such good shape & i laugh at them. HA!

i thought everyone knew they're being hoarded.

[Historic NY]

4. I wouldn't mind trying out one.............

especially if they take my 2000 GMC in on trade.

[phantom power]

5. We're saved.

:eyes:

[hunter]

6. What worked for the EV1...

The goal of this program is not to produce a hydrogen powered car.

Think of this as an innoculation against hydrogen powered vehicles, just as the EV1 was supposed to innoculate us against electric cars.

(Mind you, I think hydrogen powered cars are generally impractical because hydrogen itself is easily turned into fuels that are not so difficult to handle.)