This just made me remember a scene from Terminator 3: Rise of the Machines. In this sequence, the Terminator, John Connor and Katherine Brewster just narrowly escaped the T-X (Kristanna Loken). However, they were not able to escape unscathed. The Terminator suffered damage to his abdomen which contained his hydrogen fuel cells. These cells were damaged and set to explode in a matter of seconds. To avoid harming his companions, the Terminator removed it from his body and threw it out of the car where it exploded, mushroom cloud and all. Now the reason why I brought up this topic is because General Motors is trying to work on the same technology for their Chevrolet brand.
At the Philadelphia Auto Show, General Motors will be introducing a new type of alternative fuel for its Chevrolet Equinox SUV. The plan is to make the vehicle run on a hydrogen fuel cell. According to GM, the SUV will be combining hydrogen and oxygen in order to generate electricity and power the car. This alternative fuel cell will enable the Equinox to reach 160 miles just by relying on a single tank of hydrogen.
Based on the reports collected by delawareonline.com, GM shelled out around $1 billion in order to fund this project and be the first car manufacturer to mass-produce a hydrogen-powered vehicle.
As part of their campaign, GM will launch a promotion called “Project Driveway.” They will have one hundred drivers from New York, Washington D.C. and Los Angeles test-drive the hydrogen-powered Chevrolet Equinox for three months. During this test-drive, these drivers will report to GM whatever findings they may have while using this vehicle.
GM has also joined forces with Shell in order to provide the participating drivers with a service station carrying hydrogen fuel. . Per their agreement, Shell has set-up five service stations with hydrogen facilities, one in White Plains NY, one in Washington and three in California.
Although GM has exerted a lot of effort in promoting this technological advancement, the public will not be able to get their hands on this type of vehicle anytime soon.
“It won’t be until sometime in the next decade that the public will be able to buy GM’s fuel-cell vehicles,” according to John F. Smith, GM’s group vice-president for global product planning.
Well that gives GM ample time to make sure that these hydrogen fuel-cells don’t explode when damaged just like what happened in Terminator 3. Makes you wonder whether GM will end up becoming like Skynet in the near future.
Sources: Fuel Cell Today, Delaware Online, Terminator, Rise of the Machines
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on Wednesday, February 6th, 2008 at 9:18 pm and is filed under Chevrolet parts, Chevrolet news.
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