GM sure of 2010 deadline for fuel cell car

General Motors said on Tuesday that it is on course to meet its 2010 target to unveil a commercially viable fuel cell prototype.

Alan I Taub, executive director (research & development), and the man responsible for integrating the world's largest car manufacturer's R&D activities said in Bangalore that GM has committed itself to meeting the deadline.

The company has so far invested over $1 billion on the project particulary advanced propulsion project research. He added: "We will present it, but it is for the company to decide on the launch."

While, some parameters can be achieved, the biggest challenge though could be stripping down the costs, from $5,000 a kilowatt now to $50 a kilowatt. Only this will ensure that customers' cost per kilometre ranges between that of gasoline (petrol) and diesel.

Once this is achieved, it will woo users as pure hydrogen-powered cars, besides being environment-friendly, are 50 per cent more fuel efficient and petrol-derived hydrogen cars are 25 per cent more fuel-efficient.

He said, GM has met with some success as it has demonstrated that compressed hydrogen and wire drive technology does benefit car users. Now the challenge is costs, reliability and the ability to store hydrogen in cars. As of now the potentially feasible model is liquefied hydrogen, but GM is looking for a breakthrough on new compositions.

He added, car makers have the responsibility to hold the cost of vehicles as only that will ensure market growth. Current estimates indicate that the global auto market at 600 million will grow to a billion. But for this, safety, congestion, environment and affordability issues need to be addressed.

Besides fuel cell research, GM is also working on bridging petrol vehicles' efficiency to 80 per cent of diesel. Current petrol variants' efficiency is 20 per cent lower than that of diesel.

As for diesel, GM is trying to address the particulate matter emission issue. Taub said, one revelation of the project is that, hybrids (hydrogen + battery or oil fuelled) suits buses most, as buses are prone to frequent stops, this increases particulate emission. A hybrid model will ensure the excess power required is derived from hydrogen and not from increased combustion.

Taub co-ordinates with GM's six R&D labs in Warren, Michigan, and the Indian science laboratory.