IRVINE, Calif.---General Motors has announced that it has extended its agreement with the United States Postal Service to test fuel cell vehicles for mail delivery. The announcement was made today at the unveiling of a GM HydroGen3 fuel cell minivan that will be added to the U.S. Postal Service’s Irvine, California, fleet—marking the first time a fuel cell vehicle will be used for mail delivery on the West Coast.

The U.S. Postal Service has been testing a HydroGen3 in and around Washington, D.C., making routine mail deliveries three days per week. The hydrogen fuel cell minivan has proven to be highly reliable—having delivered more that 600,000 pieces of mail in the Washington, D.C., area over the past two years. Based on these results, GM and the U.S. Postal Service have decided to extend the Washington, D.C., test for another year as well as test a second fuel cell vehicle in Irvine. With the original agreement inked in June 2004, the U.S. Postal Service became GM’s first commercial customer for fuel cell vehicles in the United States.

“The U.S. Postal Service has a long history of paving the development of nearly every mode of transportation used in the last 230 years,” said Walter O’Tormey, Vice President, Engineering, U.S. Postal Service. “GM is helping to lead the way to a hydrogen-powered future—with advanced technologies that are more energy efficient, kinder to the environment, and help increase the energy security of our country.”

The program extension allows GM to continue to test and validate the hydrogen fuel cell propulsion system in real world driving conditions. This unique demonstration and learning relationship directly benefits GM as it seeks to validate an automotive fuel cell system by 2010—one that would be competitive with current internal combustion systems on durability and performance, and can ultimately be built at scale affordably and brought to market as quickly and efficiently as possible.

“GM’s ultimate vision for an environmentally sustainable future is a hydrogen economy with fuel cell based transportation,” said Larry Burns, GM vice president of research and development and strategic planning. “The U.S. Postal Service has been an excellent organization to work with in helping us to test and validate the hydrogen fuel cell propulsion system. Together, we’ve proven what the hydrogen fuel cell vehicle can do on the East Coast, and we’re appreciative of the opportunity for further testing on the West Coast.”

The HydroGen3, which runs on a 700-bar compressed hydrogen tank, will be serviced and maintained under the guidance of GM’s fuel cell engineers located in Torrance, Calif. GM’s fuel cell engineers will also provide the necessary training to local mail carriers who will operate the vehicle.

Hydrogen is the most abundant element in the universe and can be obtained using renewable energy sources, including solar, wind, geothermal, and biomass as well as using conventional sources like oil, natural gas, and nuclear. A fuel cell is an electrochemical device that combines hydrogen and oxygen into water, producing an electrical current as a byproduct. A fuel cell energized by hydrogen emits just pure water, produces no greenhouse gases and is twice as efficient as an internal combustion engine.

Earlier this month GM announced that it will build more than 100 Chevrolet Equinox Fuel Cell vehicles and will begin placing them with customers in the fall of 2007, as part of a comprehensive deployment plan dubbed “Project Driveway." Designed to gain comprehensive learnings on all aspects of the customer experience, Project Driveway constitutes the first meaningful market test of fuel cell vehicles anywhere.

GM believes fuel cell technology will ultimately enable the auto industry to remove the automobile from the environment debate and provide major environmental, energy and economic benefits that advance the critical national goals of clean air, reduced dependence on foreign oil and enhanced national security.

About the U.S. Postal Service:
Since 1775, the United States Postal Service and its predecessor, the Post Office Department, have connected friends, families, neighbors and businesses by mail. An independent federal agency that visits more than 144 million homes and businesses every day, the Postal Service is the only service provider delivering to every address in the nation. It receives no taxpayer dollars for routine operations, but derives its operating revenues solely from the sale of postage, products and services. With annual revenues of $70 billion, it is the world’s leading provider of mailing and delivery services, offering some of the most affordable postage rates in the world. The U.S. Postal Service delivers more than 46 percent of the world’s mail volume—some 212 billion letters, advertisements, periodicals and packages a year—and serves ten million customers each day at its 37,000 retail locations nationwide.