With the Chevrolet Volt’s latest lineup of propulsion options, the driver can choose between a lithium battery that can be charged by a wall socket or a hydrogen fuel cell that counts water as its only emission. The concept car, however, is dependent on technological advances that haven’t yet been achieved: a hydrogen refueling infrastructure and safe, affordable lithium batteries.

General Motors (NYSE: GM) Latest News about General Motors on Friday unveiled a Chevrolet Volt with a new twist on the E-flex plug-in electric vehicle system: This one gets most of its juice from a fuel cell.

The latest variant combines a lithium battery with a hydrogen fuel cell that fits in the same space as a traditional four-cylinder, internal-combustion engine to provide up to 300 miles of petroleum- and emissions-free electric driving using half as much hydrogen as GM’s previous fuel cell required. The fuel-cell E-flex variant also can drive 20 miles on a plug-in charge alone.

The fuel-cell version shown in Shanghai Friday morning would run primarily using hydrogen fuel to power the vehicle and would be supplemented by a lithium battery that is half the size of the one needed to fuel the other version of E-flex.

Whichever Fuel Works

GM calls the electric vehicle system Forge ahead and stay on budget with simple to install HP server technology. E-flex because it gives the automaker the flexibility to substitute different propulsion systems into its vehicles depending on the fuel that makes the most sense in a local economy, whether it’s hydrogen, petroleum or a plug-in charge generated by coal, wind, natural gas or nuclear power.

GM long has been criticized for building large vehicles that get poor fuel economy, while rival Toyota Motor (NYSE: TM) Latest News about Toyota Motor has enjoyed surprising sales Save 15% on Your Next Domain Purchase. Click Here. success with its hybrid gas-electric Prius sedan that has enhanced its reputation for environmentally friendly transportation.

With the E-flex systems — plug-in hybrid or fuel cell — GM seems to be trying to seize environmental leadership from Toyota.

Fuel cell vehicles’ only emission is water, and GM says it is working to develop a vehicle that costs no more than equivalent traditional internal-combustion propelled vehicles as early as 2010.

At the Detroit auto show in January, the Volt concept was built around an E-flex electric-drive system that used a lithium battery that can get its charge from an onboard generator that runs on gasoline or other fuels, as well as being plugged into an outlet.
Advancements Required

Both versions of E-flex are dependent on technological advances that haven’t yet been achieved: a safe, durable and affordable lithium battery and a system for loading hydrogen onto a vehicle.

Because of those needed advancements, the company hasn’t put a production date in place for either E-flex vehicle.

“I think you can clearly read into this, we have enough confidence in both of these. … We’re sure one of them is going to pay off, and probably both of them in a time frame that syncs up with the production engineering schedule that we have here,” said Larry Burns, GM’s vice president of research and development and strategic planning.

GM says that, together with suppliers, it is close to achieving the necessary lithium battery advancements.

On the fuel-cell front, Burns said, the company’s progress has made GM increasingly confident that the technology exists to create hydrogen for fuel-cell vehicles on a large scale.
Needed: 12,000 Hydrogen Stations

While a formidable challenge, Burns says it can be done — step by step.

“Let’s not think about it as one step from 98 percent dependent on petroleum to zero percent,” Burns said. “Think about it in terms of growing the number of vehicles in concert with the amount of hydrogen infrastructure Barracuda Spam Firewall Free Eval Unit - Click Here that you have in place.”

Along those lines, he said, GM has studied how many fuel stations the United States would need to serve 70 percent of its population. Creating a system where no one in a major city is ever more than two miles away from a station and stations are located every 25 miles along interstate highways, the United States would require only 12,000 stations, Burns said.

“We then put that same logic to Shanghai,” a densely populated city, Burns said. “And using that same principle of ‘no more than two miles away,’ how many would you need to cover the geographical footprint of Shanghai? 124. We think 124 stations could get you started in Shanghai with about 200,000 fuel cell vehicles.”

Beijing, he said, would need only 90.
China First?

GM is in talks with governments and energy suppliers in Shanghai, Berlin and southern California, among other places, to build up knowledge of fuel-cell vehicles and work to have the beginnings of a localized fuel-cell fueling system under way in a large urban area when it is ready to launch a fuel-cell vehicle for commercial sale.

“China may very well be the first country to develop a broad-based fuel cell infrastructure,” said GM CEO Rick Wagoner, speaking about why the automaker unveiled the new version of the E-flex in China.

Shanghai is a very likely place for such a system, in part because China, with its relatively new private vehicle market, has a less established fueling infrastructure.

Also, GM is not the only automaker hoping to market a fuel-cell vehicle in the next few years. Shanghai Automotive Industry also is expected to show a fuel-cell vehicle at the Shanghai auto show this week.

Ford Motor (NYSE: F) Latest News about Ford Motor Company showed an electric car in January at the Washington Auto Show that can use a gasoline engine or a hydrogen fuel cell to recharge its batteries.
Meeting Growth

Already, 50 million tons of hydrogen are being made in the world annually, Burns said. All of the hydrogen being developed today wouldn’t be diverted for vehicle use, but it does demonstrate that there are systems in place for safely and affordably creating hydrogen, Burns said.

GM continues to work on both variants of its E-flex system, Burns said.

“E-flex provides flexibility in two ways: in the propulsion systems that can be used and in the sources of energy that can be commercialized to compete with oil and meet global transportation growth in a sustainable way.”

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