GM fuel cell cars 'in showrooms by 2012'

A General Motors (NYSE: GM) executive said the carmaker could have vehicles powered by fuel cells in showrooms by 2012, a target more aggressive than that of most other automakers.

"I don't know how many of them we'll make at the time, but we should have them in showrooms by early next decade, around 2011 or 2012," Larry Burns, GM vice president of research and development and planning, told reporters yesterday. "Post-2012, the goal is to ramp up production to about a million vehicles a year, worldwide."

Burns was speaking in Tarrytown, New York, after having driven one of the company's fuel-cell powered Chevrolet Sequel prototypes in a distance test and PR event.

The demonstration appears to have been a response to news last week that Honda plans to have a limited number of its FCX fuel cell cars in showrooms next year (see the Cleantech Group's Honda to make fuel cell cars 10 years earlier than thought.)

"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 eight kilograms of hydrogen, is powered by lithium-ion batteries.

Burns said there are still major challenges in bringing fuel-cell vehicles to mass production.

"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 fueling stations and we need advanced engineering work to have consistency of temperature throughout the battery pack," he said.

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 automaker is also working on an electric vehicle, called the Chevrolet Volt, with a production target of 2009 (see GM resurrects electric car, introduces Chevy Volt.)

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