General Motors is announcing a new partnership today with Clean Energy to install a hydrogen filling station near Los Angeles International Airport. Clean Energy is a California-based company that currently operates 170 compressed natural gas filling stations around the country and the new LAX hydrogen station will be on the same site with a CNG station. The new LAX station to be operated by Clean Energy will be available to participants in GM's Project Driveway fuel cell field test program. According to Dan O'Connel, GM's Director of Fuel Cell Commercialization, the primary user of the facility will likely be Virgin Atlantic. The airline is taking six of the fuel cell Equinoxes (up from three) that are being used for Project Driveway to use for shuttling first class passengers to and from the airport. Beyond this first station, Clean Energy is looking at adding additional stations at other locations as well as examining the feasibility of on-site reforming of natural gas to produce hydrogen.

General Motors has now built 85 of the planned 100+ Equinoxes for the program and will have delivered 40 of them to customers within the next two weeks. Customers are apparently very pleased with the performance and are regularly topping the 160mile range estimate which was based on the EPA test cycle. According to O'Connell the only real complaint they've had so far besides people not wanting to give up the vehicles after three months is they want to be more visible. Many of the first batch of vehicles had little in the way of signage to distinguish them from standard Equinoxes and people want to show off the fact that they are driving bleeding edge technology.

[Sources: General Motors, HydrogenForecast]

General Motor's Project Driveway campaign began late last year and is expected to continue on for a total of three years. A few of the participants have spoken about their experiences with the hydrogen fuel cell powered vehicles, and now one of them will be blogging on Popular Mechanics regarding his ongoing experience. Fortunately for Daniel Krach, he lives close enough to a hydrogen fueling station that the hydrogen-powered vehicle's 160 mile range should not pose a problem. He says that he was selected after a rigorous few months of questioning due to his penchant for being an early-adopter when it comes to new technology. Indeed, his family considers him a nerd. We can truly feel his pain. Considering that it has gotten him the keys to a brand new high-tech vehicle, which he didn't even need to pay for, we'd imagine that nobody's laughing at him now.

So far, his journey is just beginning, and of course, we wish Daniel the best with his new ride and we look forward to reading more about the experiences he gains as he drives the new-fangled vehicle all around.

[Source: Popular Mechanics]

Click on the Equinox Fuel Cell for a high res gallery

In the fall of 2006, General Motors announced plans to launch the largest ever field test of hydrogen fuel cell vehicles with Project Driveway. The intent was to build over 100 fuel cell-powered Chevrolet Equinoxes and provide them to regular drivers to use for a period of time in real world conditions so that the company could gather data about the vehicles perform. Everything in the article below applies equally to the Equinox fuel cell and the HydroGen4 which is the re-badged version for Europe. Only the name is different.

Having significant numbers of regular customers drive your vehicles is very different from having engineers drive them. Most importantly, they will tend to see a much wider variation of both road and driver input conditions than you will ever see on a proving ground. When a vehicle is being developed usually at most only a few dozen people responsible for each of the systems, like power-train, brakes, chassis, body, etc., will ever spend any significant amount of time driving them. Those engineers tend to focus on what they know to be the likely problem areas and get those fixed.

Continue reading after the jump

General Motors is planning to start handing over keys to fuel cell powered Equinoxes to customers of their Project Driveway program in just a few weeks' time and, unlike Honda, they don't plan on charging drivers for the privilege. GM is building up to 150 of the hydrogen-fueled crossovers for what is probably the biggest fuel cell vehicle fleet test to date.

Project Driveway is expected to last for up to three years with the initial batches of vehicles going to customers in California, New York and the Washington, DC areas. Some of the Equinoxes will also be shipped over to Europe where they will be badged as the HydroGen 4. While Honda has leased their FCXs for $500 a month, GM will provide the vehicles and fuel for no charge.

[Source: Popular Science and General Motors]

This fall GM will be kicking off their Project Driveway program to put fuel cell powered Chevrolet Equinoxes in the hands of customers in various parts of the United States. Right now GM is wrapping up final calibration on the hydrogen fueled crossover and will begin production of 100+ examples within the next few months. The program will initially be available only in the New York City and Washington DC areas and in Southern California, since those areas currently have the greatest number of hydrogen filling stations. If you're interested in participating in the program head over to GM's eligibility website, put in your zip code and find out if you live in one of the right areas.

[Source: General Motors]

General Motors is building the world's largest fleet of fuel cell vehicles for real-world testing. The company will place more than 100 Chevrolet Equinox Fuel Cells with drivers around the world starting in the fall of 2007.

"This is about making it real," said Bryon McCormick, executive director of Fuel Cell Activities at GM. "As a company, we need to engage real customers."

The U.S. will get at least 100 vehicles with others planned for Asia and Europe. A variety of drivers will be selected in three regions: California, New York metropolitan and Washington D.C. The test areas are limited by the availability of hydrogen fueling stations. Each driver will have the vehicle from three to 30 months.

Amidst the big news last week regarding the Chevy Sequel fuel cell vehicle, General Motors announced they will build the world's largest fuel cell fleet to date. Dubbed Project Driveway, the fleet will be comprised of more than 100 Chevrolet Equinox SUVs converted to run on hydrogen. According to a press release, GM's aim is to "provide comprehensive insight into all aspects of the customer experience." Deployment to GM customers is planned for the fall of 2007 in California, New York and Washington D.C.

Related:

• Sequel Test Drive, Part 1: Intro
• GM Sequel fuel-cell vehicle will be a Chevy
• GM's Lutz says he'll push board to fund hydrogen fuel cell production vehicles

[Source: Fuel Cell Works]