dis[PLACE]ment architecture

Another automotive post. Yes, this is still an architecture site.

In light of Nathan's presentation yesterday regarding the hydrogen fuel cell, here it is - the world's first mass-produced fuel cell vehicle.

http://www.caranddriver.com/carnews/11655/2008-chevrolet-equinox-fuel-cell.html

GM plans to build and market 100 fuel-cell-powered Chevy Equinox SUVs in the third-quarter of 2007. The cars will be assigned to three test markets--New York, Washington, D.C., and Los Angeles--for three-month loans to families, business, and policy-makers.

"Inside is GM’s fourth-generation fuel-cell stack, a single 97-horsepower motor with 236 pound-feet of torque driving the front wheels, a pack of nickel-metal-hydride batteries, and three storage tanks holding up to nine pounds of hydrogen (good for 200 miles on an EPA mileage test) stored at 10,000 psi. GM fuel-cell director Byron McCormick promises that the hydrogen-inhaling Equinox will behave much like a regular car. It will start up in sub-freezing temperatures (until now a technical hurdle for the water-generating powerplant) and get to 60 mph in about 12 seconds. However, the fuel cell’s life expectancy is just 50,000 miles owing to corrosion issues inside the stack."

While this could be a promising development, it seems to me that it could very well end up like GM's EV1 fiasco. For those who remember, the EV1 was was GM's electric car that was released in the late 1990s to a limited market. Of 1100 produced, only about 800 ever ended up on the road, due to the fact that GM would only lease the vehicle to a handpicked number of applicants in California and Arizona. Despite very positive consumer feedback and high interest, GM killed the project in 2003, promptly repossessed all of the vehicles, and proceeded to destroy as many as possible (including hundreds of brand-new vehicles). Obviously, many folks believe the EV1 program was intended all along to fail, and to prove that electric vehicles were not feasible, and that we should all continue driving GM's (very profitable) gas-guzzling SUVs. To add fuel to this fire, GM insiders later provided documentation of long waiting lists for the EV1 that went unfulfilled.

Crushed Ev1s.

Interestingly enough, I just found out that a recent documentary titled Who Killed the Electric Car chronicles the reasons behind the rise and fall of the EV1.

posted by clintor @ 11:48 AM