Hydrogen's prospects for autos refreshed | detnews.com | The Detroit News

Hydrogen's prospects for autos refreshed | detnews.com | The Detroit News: "GM touts progress in fuel cells; fed research funds may be restored
David Shepardson / Detroit News Washington Bureau

Washington -- The long-delayed hydrogen fuel cell vehicle, overshadowed by the clamor over electric cars, may be getting a new lease on life.

General Motors Co. announced Thursday that its next generation hydrogen fuel cell system will be half the size and 220 pounds lighter than before, and use half the precious metals.

The announcement comes as Congress moves to restore most of the $100 million in fuel cell research money the Obama administration wanted to cut. That represented about half of the total.

Obama's administration, which had sought to shift more emphasis to plug-in electric vehicles, has dropped its opposition to reinstating the research money.

GM's executive director of fuel cell activities, Charles Freese, said Thursday fuel cell vehicles could be 'commercialized' by 2015, and cost 'competitive' by 2022.

'It hits this tipping point in a roughly 2022 timetable,' he said.

Still, that's substantially behind GM's initial timetable. In 2002, GM said it was 'possible' that hundreds of thousands of fuel cell vehicles could be on the road by 2010. In 2006, GM revised that estimate to 1,000 by 2010. Now, GM says it won't make that 1,000-vehicle goal, in large part because of the lack of a network of refueling stations and a high cost.

No automaker has committed to bringing a fuel cell vehicle to the mass market before 2015."