* The automobile industry has reached a critical juncture in our journey to realize the full potential of hydrogen fuel cell-electric vehicles. While we have made impressive progress, we have now reached a point where the energy industry and governments must pick up their pace so we can continue to advance in a timely manner.
    * They must quickly join our caravan, positioning for their share of the opportunity and carrying their share of the risk and burden. The actions these stakeholders take right now will determine whether, and how soon, our world realizes the exciting and important benefits of automotive fuel cell technology.
    * I am here today to ask NHA members to get fully engaged with the auto industry in an integrated effort to accelerate our journey along the most expedient and effective path.
    * One of the most serious business issues currently facing General Motors is our product's near total dependence on petroleum as a source of energy
    * . To address this issue, we have been implementing a strategy to displace petroleum through energy diversity and efficiency. To this end, we are improving the efficiency of our internal combustion engines, implementing clean diesel technology, and we will add four new hybrid models this year to the five we currently offer.
    * But we also see energy diversity as critical ... and we view renewable biofuels, electricity, and hydrogen as the most promising alternative energy carriers for automobiles. We are working very hard and fast on all three fronts to develop and implement meaningful technology solutions that provide our customers with a range of choices from "gas-friendly to gas-free" vehicles.
    * My comments today will focus on the status and future of one of these options: hydrogen fuel cell-electric vehicles. The potential societal and consumer benefits of this technology are clear and compelling. Fuel cell technology promises to deliver family-sized vehicles that are fun to drive, safe, look great, refuel fast, go far between fill-ups, and are emissions-free and petroleum-free. And, it holds promise to do all of this while keeping automobiles affordable to own and operate.
    * No other technology offers this exciting potential, and the automobile industry has made outstanding progress over the past decade to prove the potential is real.
    * Collectively, GM, Daimler, Chrysler, Honda, Toyota, and Ford have established an impressive list of industry-first benchmarks related to fuel cell vehicle performance, safety, range, speed, cold-start capability, durability, and functionality.
    * As an example, last May GM's Chevrolet Sequel became the world's first fuel cell vehicle to go 300 miles on a single fill-up of hydrogen. Two Sequels loaded with four adults left Rochester, NY on an 80-degree day and traveled to Tarrytown, NY on real roads under real traffic conditions. We averaged over twice the energy efficiency of a comparable gasoline-engine vehicle. Better yet, our hydrogen was produced using green electricity generated at Niagara Falls. This meant our entire trip was largely emissions-free, petroleum-free, fossil fuel-free, and CO2-free. And, the journalists driving the Sequels loved their jet-like acceleration and quietness.
    * Building on this accomplishment, Chevrolet has now launched Project Driveway, the world's largest-ever market test of fuel cell vehicles. Project Driveway will field over 100 Chevy Equinox Fuel Cell vehicles equipped with the same fuel cell technology that powered Sequel. Nearly half of these vehicles have already been built, and over 1,500 people have already driven them on public roads.
    * As a real sign of increasing interest in this technology, there have been more than 50,000 hand-raisers for an Equinox Fuel Cell vehicle on chevy.com. From this pool of hand-raisers, we have an active Internet community of 500 people. And there are another 8,000 people on the waiting list to participate!
    * Several Equinox vehicles have been delivered to real families like Ben and Jackie Lee, who work for Disney and Warner Brothers in southern California, and Maria O'Neill, who is the science curriculum coordinator for the Port Chester Public Schools in New York.
    * Maria told the New York Times that she feels honored to be among the first consumers in the world to park a hydrogen car at home. She said: "I have a hydrogen vehicle right in my driveway. I get in it every morning. My kids are in it with me. I take it to the grocery store. There's no reason we can't have this as an option."
    * And Jackie told the Burbank Leader: "... in my own way I do what I can for the environment. I really like that the car has zero emissions and anything I can do to limit our dependence on foreign oil is good."
    * The media have also taken notice. For example, after putting the Equinox Fuel Cell through an aggressive day of driving, Jim Healey from USA Today wrote: "Get busy on hydrogen stations, energy companies. Judging by the (Chevy) Equinox fuel-cell vehicle, reducing the cost seems the only serious challenge. It's smoother, mostly quieter and generally nicer to drive than a gasoline-electric hybrid vehicle."
    * Our technology progress and Project Driveway have convinced GM that fuel cell-electric vehicles are indeed real in terms of performance, range, refueling time, safety, functionality, and packaging. And, based on the knowledge we've gained from spending well over $1 billion on fuel cell system R&D, GM remains convinced fuel cell vehicles have the potential to be real in terms of cost and durability. In fact, we have not discovered anything yet to suggest mass volume cannot ultimately be attained. And, with the global car parc rapidly approaching a billion vehicles, mass volume is the only goal that matters from an energy and environmental perspective.
    * GM is not alone in reaching such conclusions. Recently, leaders from Toyota, Daimler, and Honda have echoed our sentiments.
    * Irv Miller, Toyota's group vice president for Corporate Communications, wrote in a recent blog that "for Toyota, hydrogen fuel cells will play a major role in our sustainable mobility strategy.... We are convinced they will be part of our future."
    * Chairman Dieter Zetsche has said Daimler is "very, very serious" about mass-producing fuel-cell cars, estimating that by 2014-2015, distinctive, economically competitive fuel-cell models will be in production.
    * Honda President Takeo Fukui has said that he expects sales of fuel cell-powered vehicles to start in the next 10 years and has warned that he doesn't "think there will be a future for the auto industry unless we realize this."
    * But going forward, the potential of hydrogen fuel cell-electric vehicles can only be realized through several generations of real vehicles driven by real customers, with each generation having ever-higher sales volumes. The resulting cycles of learning and scale economy are the keys to achieving automotive-competitive cost and durability targets.
    * Those of you who have developed, produced, or sold a new technology know that the true potential of a technology cannot be proven in laboratories or demonstrations. It can only be proven with real products used by real customers in real markets. And, in most cases, several continuously improving generations of real products are required before a market "tipping point" is reached.
    * Clearly, the auto industry has stepped forward with fuel cell vehicles and is doing everything possible to aggressively develop this critically important technology solution - we're talking about industry investments on the order of hundreds of millions of dollars each year and thousands of engineers dedicated to bringing this technology to market. However, we have reached a stage where we cannot continue to make progress solely on our own. To reach a market "tipping point", our customers must have safe and convenient access to affordable hydrogen. This means the energy industry and governments must join the auto industry in our journey to produce and sell fuel cell vehicles in mass volume.
    * GM remains committed to continuing this journey, so we need the energy industry and governments to commit to developing a hydrogen infrastructure. And we need to see this evidence soon if we are to continue with the timely development of our next-generation fuel cell vehicle based on our next-generation technology. That is why we are reaching out to energy providers now, so that we can coordinate these efforts in tandem. We need infrastructure to accommodate larger volumes of our fuel cell vehicles.
    * This is where we urgently need your help.
    * While automakers continue to commit resources to the development of full-performance, affordable, and durable fuel cell-electric vehicles, there appears to be comparatively little parallel investment and resource allocation for development and deployment of commercially-ready retail hydrogen infrastructure.
    * Despite very positive efforts by organizations like FreedomCAR and DOE, Shell Hydrogen and Chevron Hydrogen, the California Fuel Cell Partnership and the California Hydrogen Highway, there does not appear to be a sense of urgency to move to the next level of infrastructure scale and readiness to accompany the aggressive development and demonstration of fuel cell-electric vehicles.
    * In California, there is only a single publicly-accessible 700-bar station at the University of California at Irvine - yet our Equinox Fuel Cell vehicles are already in the hands of customers who are looking for a retail-like refueling experience.
    * To support Project Driveway, GM has had to purchase and install hydrogen fuelers to fill the gap in public 700-bar fueling capability. We did this because Project Driveway is a critical step in market preparation ... not because we want to enter the energy business. And we did it because, although we announced this program more than three years ago, our vehicles were ready and the infrastructure was not.
    * Meanwhile, many of the early barriers to infrastructure have now been lowered:
    * National codes for fueling stations are available and ready for insertion into State Codes.
    * The federal government is training permitting officials for hydrogen facilities.
    * And both federal and state governments continue to offer funding for hydrogen fueling stations.
    * Given these positive developments, it is past time for the necessary infrastructure initiatives to accelerate. What is urgently needed is sufficient investment by energy providers, and the cooperation of government, to assure auto companies that the required hydrogen infrastructure will be in place when we deploy our next generation of fuel cell-electric vehicles.
    * There is also a need for more aggressive policies ensuring fully capable fueling stations are put in place and operating prior to the arrival of the next wave of vehicles. If the State of California requires fuel cell-electric vehicles approaching commercial readiness, it must also ensure that a supporting and commercially-ready hydrogen infrastructure materializes in a timely manner. To be clear here, GM is prepared to target our next generation of fuel cell vehicles at a few specific metropolitan areas to keep the initial number of hydrogen stations at a modest level.
    * For example, our studies indicate that just 40 stations distributed in the three counties comprising Los Angeles and along heavily traveled corridors to Santa Barbara, Las Vegas, San Diego, and Palm Springs would place hydrogen within convenient reach of most LA residents. Similar studies exist for New York, Berlin, and Shanghai. In contrast to the 170,000 gasoline stations in the U.S. today, asking for 40 hydrogen stations in one city to allow us to keep learning does not seem unreasonable.
    * Quite honestly, the low level of hydrogen infrastructure activity is perplexing to technology leaders in the auto industry, especially when compelling facts exist supporting the conclusion that a hydrogen infrastructure for automobiles is economically viable and do-able.
    * GM and Shell recently released a Hydrogen Fueling Infrastructure Assessment. This study identified ten key things people should know about a hydrogen infrastructure for automobiles.
    * One: Today, more than 56 billion kilograms of hydrogen are produced globally each year. This amount is equal to what would be consumed by nearly 200 million fuel cell-electric vehicles! And, global hydrogen production is forecast to grow 45 percent to 81 billion kilograms by 2011. The point here is that the hydrogen industry is already a huge global industry with mature technology and an outstanding safety record.
    * Two: About half of the global hydrogen production today is used at oil refineries. If this trend continues, by 2011, this will equate to roughly 135 million fuel cell vehicles, implying over 15 percent of the world's car parc could be energized by hydrogen already being produced for transportation. The point here is that an enormous amount of hydrogen is already being produced by energy companies as an affordable and necessary input into the production of gasoline. And, the irony is that as these companies work hard to perpetuate the petroleum economy, they are establishing significant capacity that can help to initiate the hydrogen economy.
    * Three: A large hydrogen production site exists today near almost every major U.S. and European city. This means large quantities of hydrogen are already being produced close to where most Americans and Europeans live.
    * Four: Numerous studies have shown that the near-term total cost-per-mile for hydrogen, when fueling stations are well-utilized, could be equivalent to $2-3 per gallon of gasoline (untaxed). Thus, at today's gasoline prices, hydrogen used in fuel cell vehicles at volume already appears to be cost competitive.
    * Five: As more hydrogen becomes available for transportation, prices are projected to decrease further. The U.S. Department of Energy's long-term target cost for producing, distributing, and dispensing hydrogen is equivalent to $1.00-1.50 per gallon of gasoline (untaxed). DOE has identified several pathways in its Hydrogen Roadmap with the potential to meet this target.
    * Six: Several analyses have shown that deployment of a fueling infrastructure is within reach. According to a GM estimate, a network of just 12,000 hydrogen stations would put hydrogen within two miles of 70 percent of the U.S. population - those living in the 100 largest metropolittan areas - and connect the major metro areas with a hydrogen refueling station every 25 miles. Similar results exist for Europe. Even if these stations cost $2 million each, the total cost of $24 billion, while not "pocket-change," is not overwhelming in light of the opportunity being created (about $80 per capita).
    * Seven: Natural gas, electricity, and water are widely distributed in the U.S., making virtually any location a potential site for hydrogen production and vehicle fueling. Initial studies suggest "distributed" hydrogen production (via natural gas reforming or water electrolysis) could be economically viable - approaching a cost equivalent to $1.50 per gallon of gasoline. So, the infrastructure challenge perhaps is not one of wells, tankers, pipelines, refineries, delivery trucks, and stations, but rather one of "appliances" that efficiently and cost-effectively create hydrogen at a distributed scale.
    * Eight: A 2 percent increase in the U.S. natural gas supply would support 10 million fuel cell electric vehicles. These vehicles would reduce CO2 emissions by over 50 percent on a "well-to-wheels" basis when compared with the gasoline vehicles they displaced. Natural gas is already proven as an affordable source of hydrogen, with production costs roughly equivalent to 60 cents per gallon of gasoline. The point here is that natural gas is a good place to start, but certainly not the only source in the long run. (An analogy is ethanol. Corn-based ethanol has been a catalyst to get over seven million flex-fuel vehicles on U.S. roads. It was never envisioned as the end-game and now, with significant technology progress, ethanol from non-food sources like cellulose looks very promising.)
    * Nine: Balancing infrastructure availability with fuel cell-electric vehicle sales growth - and concentrating initial sales in specifiic geographic regions - will be essential to manage early capitalization risks. A practical first step would be to focus initial fueling coverage in concentrated regions. We're being very realistic in supporting a practical deployment of fueling coverage limited to a few select metropolitan regions - but we need these targeted regions sufficiently covered with hydrogen fueling stations!
    * And ten: The hydrogen infrastructure for automobiles is economically viable and do-able, but will require a collective will by automakers, energy suppliers, and governments who have the courage to shape our destiny and take infrastructure to the next level.
    * In GM's view, the challenge going forward is for vehicle manufacturers and fuel providers to pursue a truly collaborative leadership commitment that brings hydrogen-fueled vehicles and fueling stations to commercial maturity. Early movers in this collaboration get to define and shape how and where this will happen!
    * In parallel, strong government leadership is crucial to mitigate the investment risks of accelerated market entry. Government must also encourage customer acceptance by promoting the societal benefits that hydrogen and fuel cell-electric vehicles will provide in terms of energy security and environmental sustainability.
    * It is important to make the transition to a hydrogen economy one of deliberate and accelerating progress, where hydrogen production pathways further mature and diversify over time, and energy and environmental benefits improve as technology advances.
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    * The bottom line is this: GM believes that hydrogen will play a major role in any scenario where clean energy, sustainability, zero vehicle emissions, and energy diversity are the end game.
    * We are convinced that large numbers of our vehicles will ultimately be electrically driven and will be energized by hydrogen and electricity.
    * Hydrogen fueling demonstrations will play a significant role in determining the market readiness of both hydrogen vehicles and hydrogen fuel. These demonstrations will serve as public proof points that customer needs can be met in terms of fuel cost, availability, quality, convenience, and safety.
    * GM's resolve to realize our vision for hydrogen fuel cell-electric vehicles is stronger than ever, so we are absolutely committed to remain actively and visibly engaged. But a renewed commitment by government and energy companies toward the next generation of hydrogen fueling stations is also needed if we are to be successful.
    * We truly are at a defining point in the development of the technology. What and how we execute over the next 5 years will shape the next 50 years!
    * When I was a graduate student at UC-Berkeley in the late 70's, I was taught to focus first on the questions before working on answers. I learned that by properly stating the question, you are typically 90 percent of the way to an answer.
    * Relative to hydrogen fuel cell-electric vehicles, the question is no longer "Can it be done?" Clear and compelling evidence exists indicating these vehicles are indeed real as is the hydrogen infrastructure required to support them. If you want to see for yourself, sign up to drive the Chevrolet Equinox Fuel Cell we have here at the NHA conference.
    * And, it is no longer a question of "Should it be done?" With oil over $100 per barrel ... emerging economies like China, India, Brazil, and Russia growing fast ... the world's largest economies highly dependent on imported oil ... and concerns about global climate change increasing in urgency ... we not only should do it, we must do it.
    * Instead, the question is "Will it be done?" I am convinced it will - because it is the right thing to do at the right time. However, it can only happen if we act with a collective will and a collective sense of urgency.
    * Together, we must act rather than debate, create the future rather than try to predict it, and solve the challenges we face now rather than handing these challenges off to future generations.
    * Thank you.