One of the lucky participants who got to drive one of GM's Fuel Cell Equinoxes as part of Project Driveway ,Matt Mackey, blogs about his experience at the wheel of the vehicle. He's not the first one to do so, but as with the other fuel-cell blogger, he comes back greatly impressed. He considers this car the future of the automobile and what a revolution it was, since he believes that the fuel will be made at home with solar cells and tap water. Mackey also explains how the 3-month test was not a technical experience for him but rather about how it is a necessary step to educate people in what a fuel-cell is, and what's the role of hydrogen is in our future energy needs.

[Source. GMnext]

As we wrote on April Fool's Day (but wasn't a joke), GM's vice president for research & development and planning, Larry Burns, delivered a speech at the National Hydrogen Association conference highlighting his GM's bullish stance on hydrogen cars. Reuters spoke to Burns about his speech and learned of the General's plans to have 1,000 hydrogen fuel cell vehicles driving in California between 2012 and 2014. Through Project Driveway, GM already has around 60 fuel cell Equinoxes in SoCal, and Burns told Reuters that "The next logical play for us is to take that up to a car scale of about 1,000," with mainstream acceptance and financial viability of hydrogen cars following in 2017 or 2018. We'll see.

[Source: Reuters]

"Reports of my death" the fuel cell might say "have been greatly exaggerated." Market Watch spoke with Larry Burns (see video below the fold), VP Research & Development & Strategic Planning for GM, at the launch of Virgin's fuel cell fleet and he is very bullish on fuel cells. Burns said that while today there are hundreds of fuel cell vehicles on the roads today, there will be thousands by 2012 and then hundreds of thousands or even millions "within our grasp" in the "next decade." A lot of progress was made in the last decade, Burns said, and GM is even talking with energy companies like Shell (remember when they used to be called oil companies?) about the future of fuel cells. Insanely optimistic fuel cell hype is back, baby!

[Source: MarketWatch]

Virgin Atlantic announced that it has joined forces with Chevy's "Project Driveway" program. Richard Branson's airline is going to use three Chevrolet Equinox hydrogen fuel cell vehicles for its "complimentary ground transfer service for upper class passengers" for planes landing at Los Angeles International Airport (LAX). The program will last for 30 months. Virgin and Chevrolet are studying the possibility to expand this service to New York.

Branson stated that this program was one of Virgin's initiatives to reduce the airline's carbon footprint. GM's Larry Burns said that it was a perfect endorsement of GM's fuel cell technology and "an important new avenue for demonstrating the new DNA of the automobile."

The Chevy Equinox looks like a conventional production car but the ICE has been with a fuel cell system plus a nickel-metal hydride battery pack under the floor of the vehicle. It's got three compressed hydrogen storage tanks made of carbon fiber and pressurized to 10,000 pounds per square inch (psi). The tanks contain roughly nine pounds (4.2 kg) of hydrogen good for a range of approximately 150 miles (220 km). Full press release after the jump.

There is certainly no lack of people willing to make bold pronouncements regarding hydrogen cars. Over the summer, we heard about a million hydrogen-powered vehicles in India by 2020. Last year, there was talk of six million hydrogen cars in Europe by that same date. Today, over in Shanghai, GM vice president Elizabeth Lowery told Reuters that GM will be the first company to make a million fuel cell-powered vehicles. Lowery was helping to unveil the hydrogen Chevy Equinox in China.

GM's hydrogen timeline is already in motion, with Project Driveway underway (stay tuned for some news on that in a little bit). The company has previously announced that it hopes to have fuel cell vehicles available for sale/lease by around 2011 or 2012, and the million vehicle mark should be reached not too long thereafter.

So, GM's intention is easy to read. What would you do if you were a betting man?

[Source: Reuters / Fang Yan]