General Motors brought four fuel cell vehicles to the McCormick School of Engineering and Applied Science at Northwestern University in Evanston, Illinois. The one-day event was held in conjunction with the 2nd annual Wired NextFest, a three-day technology festival held this year at Navy Pier on Chicago's lakefront.

Larry Burns, GM Vice President of Research & Development and Strategic Planning, was on hand to answer questions and explain GM's hydrogen  vision for the future.

The fuel cell vehicles -- AUTOnomy, Hy-Wire, Sequel and HydroGen3 --  were on display along Sheridan road, clearly visible to the vehicle and pedestrian traffic of this busy college town. Hundreds of onlookers stopped by to take a look.

Members of the media were given the opportunity to drive the HydroGen3 roughly one mile through the residential area surrounding the school.  While waiting for my chance to drive, I had the opportunity to talk with Larry Burns and others involved in the GM fuel cell development about the HydroGen3 and GM's fuel cell program in general.

The HydroGen3 is based on the Opel Zafira compact minivan. GM is doing these demonstrations on a fairly regular basis now and today we would be driving the sixteenth HydroGen3 built. There are eighteen total in the  HydroGen3 fleet. Most of them were built in Germany.

Not all HydroGen3's are the same. Fourteen of the eighteen use liquid hydrogen storage, but four use compressed gaseous hydrogen. There are other differences between the cars, depending on what GM is trying. The vehicle we would be driving was configured with gaseous hydrogen compressed at a maximum pressure of 10,000 pounds per square inch (700 bar).

Under the hood, the first thing your eyes set sight on is the main DC-DCconverter. The 94-kilowatt fuel cell stack is underneath, almost  entirely out of sight. Next to this is the 60-kilowatt, three-phase asynchronous electric motor. There are two cooling systems. One is a low temperature system for the power electronics and the other is a high temperature system for the fuel cell stack. The GM engineers tell me they may never have to add any coolant to the HydroGen3 because it doesn't get as hot as in an internal combustion engine.

While I was talking, the first carload of test drivers drove away and I didn't even notice the car had started moving until it was perhaps 30 feet away. It's that quiet unless you are right next to it.

The HydroGen3 is ready to drive approximately 13 seconds after the ignition is turned. Improvements on this have already been made. I'm told the start-up time has been improved dramatically with the Sequel, to as little as one second. Part of the reason for the start-up time is for data acquisition. The vehicle could be operated before this time lapsed.

The first commercial application of a GM fuel cell vehicle in the United States is currently underway in a field trial with the U.S. Postal Service in the Washington, D.C. area. By the time you read this, two USPS drivers who have gained sufficient experience with the HydroGen3 will be on theirown without any hand-holding or local oversight by GM -- apparently a first.The USPS field trial comes after another field trial with FedEx in Japan, where the HydroGen3 was used in daily service to deliver high priority packages.

Larry Burns told me things are going well with the Dow Chemical project and that Dow Chemical has been an excellent partner. This project, located at Dow's largest chemical manufacturing plant in Freeport, Texas, uses GM's automotive fuel cell technology in a stationary application to accelerate the learning curve. Phase one of the project started with just one fuel cell and ended last year. Phase two is now underway, operating a full megawatt worth of fuel cells. Ultimately, Dow and GM could install up to 500 fuel cells at Dow facilities, to generate 35 megawatts of electricity from 
Dow's waste hydrogen.

Finally, it was my turn to drive. The brave souls riding with me included HydroGen3 senior vehicle engineer Bryan Essig and a pretty young lady from the marketing and communications department at the McCormick school.

My first relief is that I fit in the drivers seat. Understand that I am 6 feet 6 inches tall.

Excited but a little nervous, I asked Bryan if anyone has cracked one of these up. He says there have been a few bumps and bruises, but nothing major. More common are the fights over who gets to drive first. I made a conscious decision to stay focused and not be one of "those idiots" who smack up a million dollar car.

Bryan explains the essentials to me. On the dashboard, I have a tachometer, which reads in kilowatts of power rather than RPM's. Next to that is the speedometer. I would be paying attention to the smaller set of numbers on the speedometer, which reads in miles per hour. Next to that is my fuel gauge, showing a little less than half a tank.

Down to my right where the gear shifter normally is, I only have a number of push buttons. "P" for park, "D" for drive, "N" for neutral, along with two arrow buttons for forward and reverse. There is also a red emergency button. I asked Bryan about a four inch square digital display to the right of the control panel on the dashboard, which we joked that I could ignore because that's the "secret data".

Bryan says we're ready. Seatbelt on, foot on the brake. I press the forward button and let up on the brake, and we're off!

I don't know what I was expecting, but before I even get out of the parking lot, I'm already commenting that it feels very much like any other car.

The first thing I notice is how quiet the vehicle is. The lack of conventional engine noise is kind of spooky. There's a mild whining noise that seemed worse when I was standing outside the car. Bryan estimates eight out of ten are impressed by how quiet the vehicle is. The other twenty percent find the whine annoying, probably due to the lack of noise otherwise.

As I added up my experience block by block, I found some things to be picky about. There is a slight hesitation when accelerating from a stop, but once the power is available there seems to be plenty of low-end torque available.

Sorry, race fans. Driving mostly on roads lined by parallel-parked cars, I wasn't able to come anywhere close to the HydroGen3's top speed of ninety-nine miles per hour. The fastest I went was 35-40mph. I did give it some stabs of the throttle and the response seemed more than satisfactory. I had no trouble keeping up with traffic, which was plentiful along Sheridan road.

Another difference from today's cars is that there is no shifting from either a manual or automatic transmission. The vehicle accelerates smoothly no matter the speed.

After getting the vehicle up to speed a few times, I commented that the vehicle almost feels like its on cruise control once you are up to about 30mph and take your foot off the throttle. Bryan couldn't recall anyone saying this before. I think what I was observing was the absence of engine braking found in internal combustion vehicles.

As my drive was coming to an end, I had my "idiot" moment after I drove the car back into the parking lot. While taking my seatbelt off and thanking Bryan for his time, I heard "WAIT WAIT WAIT" from behind. Sure enough, I'd forgotten to push the button to put the car back into park and the car started creeping on the young lady in back as she was getting out.Thankfully, the car idles forward even slower than in most internal combustion vehicles I've driven. She was okay and we were able to joke about it as I apologized.

I was embarrassed, but perhaps this is the type of real world experience GM can only learn about by letting idiots behind the wheel. It was very easy to forget to put the car back in park. Checking with Bryan, he says he has done this as well, so I feel better.

The HydroGen3 isn't perfect but its close and exceeded my expectations. When I first started following fuel cell development, the cars were bulging with no passenger room and test drive malfunctions seemed more common. To my knowledge, there were no problems on this day.

What bothered me most about the vehicle had nothing to do with the fuel cell system. I found the brake and the accelerator to be too close to each other for my comfort.

What's next for GM's fuel cell program? My understanding is that the last HydroGen3 has been made. There will be a HydroGen4 and even a HydroGen5. The number of vehicles on the road will be increased substantially as part of a five-year, $88-million agreement signed with the U.S. Department of Energy in March to build a 40-vehicle fuel cell fleet to further develop the technology. Fuel cell fleets will be deployed or expanded in Washington D.C., New York, California and Michigan. Shell Hydrogen will support GM by setting up five more hydrogen refueling stations.

Wheel hub motors may be tried with the HydroGen4 such as those found on GM's Sequel. The fuel cell stack will be larger in the HydroGen4 and the costly DC-DC converter will be eliminated.

Driving home, I found myself with mixed feelings. On one hand, I was excited about what I'd just experienced. On the other hand, I almost felt some disappointment that the HydroGen3 didn't feel all that different from my car. I'll call it the "big whoop" factor. But therein lies the secret. GM has worked hard to make driving their fuel cell vehicles no different an experience than the cars they sell today. Consumers expect that. On that front, my psuedo disappointment is a sign of GM's progress with this program.

If and when GM realizes its vision of producing these cars, it will only take a few days for the consumer to lose any appreciation for the sweat and money that has been poured into this effort. Today was a day to appreciate first-hand what GM has accomplished to date.

I'd like to thank GM for this opportunity. I can't wait to see what they show us next.

Thanks also to Northwestern University and the staff at the McCormick school for being great hosts to a wonderful event.

About The Author
John Liskey is a fuel cell advocate based in Chicago. He can be reached at fuelcelladvocate@yahoo.com.