Well it appears to be official! With a new rollout of next generation Chevy Equinox Fuel Cell test cars, GM is one step closer to their plans of a production Fuel Cell Vehicle (FCV) by 2015. GM has been testing a hundred of the Chevy Equinox Hydrogen Fuel Cell test cars in the United States since 2008, in a little talked about study to improve the longevity of the hydrogen fuel cells.
The fuel cells in the original Chevy Equinox test vehicles had bee seeing a service life of around 50,000 miles. GM just rolled out a new version of the Chevy Equinox Fuel Cell model for a consumer test, and expect (or hope?) that this one sees 100,000 miles. In addition to the longer service life, the new equinox fuel cell is half the size, 220 pounds lighter AND uses one third the amount of platinum than the previous fuel cell. This appears to be a big breakthrough as size and weight has been an issue for fuel cells, and of course much less platinum helps drive costs lower. Hopefully this will help lower the cost to the consumer when the Chevy Equinox fuel cell vehicle (FCV) finally comes to mass production. With the smaller sized fuel cell, it will be possible to roll the fuel cell out to smaller vehicles as well.
Well done GM!
