GM banking on electricity to power cars

Richard Williamson, Scripps Howard News Service

Published December 1, 2006 at midnight

Text size

More More Business

More stories »

LOS ANGELES - In the centennial year of the L.A. Auto Show, everything old is new again.

Well, almost everything.

When the show was launched in 1907, the source of power for horseless carriages was still in doubt. The major contenders were gasoline, steam and electricity.

Today, as gasoline becomes more precious and perilous to the environment, the past century's most successful automakers are testing alternatives that could determine their ability to survive.

"Despite its success on the sands of Daytona Beach 100 years ago, steam is not one of the technologies we're pursuing today," said GM Chairman and Chief Executive Rick Wagoner, referring to the Stanley Rocket that set a land-speed record of 127 mph in 1906. "But we are very serious about the third option that was big in 1906. That is electrically driven vehicles."

Lest you die-hards think this means the comeback of the beloved but ill-fated battery-powered EV1, Wagoner explained that "electric-powered" can mean a zero-emissions fuel-cell car of the future or a "hybrid" that uses both a gasoline engine and an electric motor powered by batteries.

In a hybrid, the gas engine charges the batteries, and the electric engine returns the favor by taking over from the gasoline engine. This is somewhat similar to the way submarines ("electric boats") operated in World War II.

After lagging Toyota in the development of hybrid technology, General Motors is planning to leapfrog the competition with a hybrid that combines the most appealing features of the misbegotten EV1 and the common hybrid. The next big thing is a "plug-in hybrid" version of the Saturn VUE.

Still in development, a plug-in VUE could charge its batteries from a household electrical outlet to provide greater range and an alternate source of energy. The plug-in would evolve from the upcoming hybrid Vue Greenline that Wagoner says improves fuel economy by 45 percent over the standard VUE, a "crossover" car-sport utility vehicle.

While the hybrid Vue Greenline is coming as a 2008 model, the "plug-in hybrid" is not far behind, Wagoner said.

"I can't give you a date certain for our plug-in hybrid today," Wagoner said. "But I can tell you that this is a top-priority program for GM, given the huge potential it offers for fuel- economy improvement."

But the plug-in hybrid and a commitment to fuel-cell vehicles such as the prototype Chevy Equinox were not enough for a group of environmentalists operating under the banner "Jumpstart Ford." As Wagoner finished his speech at the auto show Wednesday, the group confronted him with a poster that it wanted him to sign, pledging to make GM the most environmentally efficient automotive company in the world.

Wagoner demurred.

"I think my speech speaks for itself," Wagoner said. A heated exchange between the environmentalists and an automotive executive ensued.

Jumpstart Ford, which accuses Ford Motor Co. of doing the least to improve fuel economy and emissions, was created by the Rainforest Action Network, Global Exchange and the Ruckus Society in 2003. The group decided to crash the GM chief's speech because it was the show's keynote address.

To draw more attention to its cause, Jumpstart Ford sponsored an "Oil Addicts Anonymous" meeting in the lobby of the Los Angeles Convention Center, mocking President Bush's claim that America is "addicted to oil." While Bush may have done little to break that addiction, the automakers say they are burning the midnight oil to come up with alternatives to the internal combustion engine.

A fleet of alternative-fuel vehicles and fuel-cell prototypes from Ford and GM was parked outside the convention center awaiting test drives by journalists.

"If they could come and spend two months side by side with our engineers who are struggling to get the cost down and the reliability up and crunch the numbers, they'd be a little more sympathetic," Scott Staley, chief engineer on Ford's fuel-cell program, said of the protesters.

While the fuel-cell version of the Ford Explorer that Staley provided for test drives operated quietly and efficiently on L.A.'s streets, he noted that problems such as the absence of hydrogen fueling stations and the exorbitant cost have yet to be mastered.

The fuel cell, developed by companies such as Ballard Technologies of Vancouver, British Columbia, converts hydrogen and oxygen into electricity, which is stored in batteries. There's no need for the internal combustion engine. The only emission is water. Unfortunately, the catalyst that converts the elements to electricity is platinum, a precious metal that's a wee bit expensive.

But progress on the fuel-cell front is occurring, with companies including Shell Oil Co. participating in the effort.

Furthermore, the fuel-cell vehicles are already on the road. More than 30 fuel-cell versions of the Ford Focus are in use in Vancouver, Sacramento, Calif., and Orlando, Fla., among others. The Focus has even passed crash tests designed for natural gas-powered vehicles, Staley said. The fuel-cell Explorer improves safety by placing the hydrogen fuel tank down the middle of the vehicle, away from the crumple zones.

GM aims to have more than 100 fuel-cell vehicles in service by the end of next year. A fuel-cell Equinox used at the Marine Corps base at Camp Pendleton, Calif., already has 29,061 miles on it.

And in a campaign called Project Driveway, GM next June will begin accepting applications from consumers in Southern California, Washington, D.C., and the New York City area willing to provide long-term test drives in a fuel-cell version of the GMC Yukon.

Meanwhile, BMW is planning to introduce more fuel-efficient diesel engines to the U.S. market in 2008 and unveiled a prototype called the Hydrogen 7, a 7-Series sedan that Chairman and Chief Executive Tom Purves called the world's first hydrogen-powered sedan.

Subscribe to the Rocky Mountain News