Jonathan Takiff: We've driven the future, & it doesn't use gas Posted on May 11th
THE GIZMO: Hydrogen-powered and self-steering vehicles from General Motors.
It’s car-show season - with the Philadelphia International Auto Show opening Saturday (through Feb. 10). But I’ve already seen and driven the coolest vehicles at a less likely event: the Consumer Electronics Show, held earlier this month in Las Vegas.
Automaker GM was highly visible there, jockeying for position as a future-minded, gizmo-loving, high-tech authority.
“If the automobile was being introduced today, it would be here at CES,” declared GM CEO Rick Waggoner in a keynote address. Rephrase that as “radically revamped,” and the breakthrough was happening right outside.
APPEARANCES ARE DECEIVING: Gazing at a Chevrolet Equinox in the parking lot of the Las Vegas Convention Center, only a couple of details suggested this was other than a stock CUV (crossover utility vehicle).
There was a special paint job, for starters, announcing this ride as a (drum roll, please) Fuel Cell Powered vehicle. Plus, there was the curious presence of two fuel-tank door flaps.
Once inside, I spotted an interesting display on the center console tracking the flow of electrical power through the vehicle.
Pop the hood and you find not an engine but a “stack” of fuel cells encased in plastic boxes. The cells don’t burn fuel, as a combustion engine would. Instead, the cells create wheel-driving electricity from the chemical reaction that occurs when liquid hydrogen fuel (stored under high pressure in explosion-proof tanks) is mixed with oxygen from the air.
Hiding under the vehicle seats is a second power source, a nickel-metal hydride battery pack. It builds up regenerative power whenever the driver hits the brakes. That supplemental power also increases fuel efficiency and boosts acceleration when needed.
CRUISE CONTROL: Driving down the Las Vegas strip in an Equinox, I was impressed by how quiet, smooth and eco-friendly this vehicle is. The power source barely hums, and the only thing that comes out of the tail pipe is a little mist of water.
That’s right: zero pollution!
The fuel-celled Equinox boasts one of those newfangled continuous gearing transmissions, so you never feel a shift. And thanks to that secondary power source, there’s plenty of torque for fast takeoffs from a stop.
But to push this vehicle from zero to 60 mph does take a leisurely 12 seconds. Acceleration has been clamped down in the 40- to 60-mph range, I’m guessing, for maximum fuel efficiency (and bragging rights).
SO WHERE DO YOU GET TANKED UP? GM is starting a program to loan 100 fuel-cell-powered vehicles to test families in Los Angeles, New York and Washington, D.C. - the only places where there are any hydrogen refueling stations.