Free Car, Free Gas, No Strings
This Chevy Equinox runs on hydrogen. What a gas.
Photos: Chevrolet
Chevrolet is looking for a thousand drivers willing to gad about for free in one of the company's revolutionary fuel-cell-powered Equinox SUVs, each for three months. In return, GM asks only that the lucky recipients tell them frankly what they think of the car.
No bull. Free car, free fuel (gaseous, high-pressure hydrogen), free insurance, free XM satellite radio, free OnStar, and the car comes with leather, a nav system, and other top-of-the-line options. It's also rarer and more valuable than any Ferrari or Porsche sold, since only 100 have been handmade. (The program goes on for 30 months, 10 driver cycles per car.)
General Motors is hoping that the hydrogen-powered fuel cell is the Next Big Thing -- an electric car that never has to be plugged in or recharged because it creates its own electricity and produces zero emissions. Because unlike a hybrid, it doesn't use any gasoline at all. The hydrogen gas flows through something call a "fuel cell" that creates electricity (go here to learn how, if you're a techie), which then drives an electric motor and also gets stored in a big battery for when it's needed for hard acceleration or hill-climbing. What comes out the tailpipe is tepid water vapor, nothing else.
I drove an Equinox FCV last week, and it was a remarkable experience, largely because it was in fact unremarkable. Turn the key and nothing happens other than the dash gauges coming alive. Press the accelerator and the car silently moves off. Press it harder and the roomy four-seat SUV silently accelerates (all the way to 100 mph, if you wish -- and I did briefly consider becoming the first person in the world to get a speeding ticket in a fuel-cell vehicle). Acceleration feels surprisingly strong, because the electric motor's torque is instant, although the car's actual 0-60 time is a poky 12 seconds.
Here's the hitch:
To refuel the Equinox FCV, you go to a hydrogen station and plug a simple, high-pressure hose into the car's fuel-filler inlet. When was the last time you saw a hydrogen station? Let me guess: never. But in fact there are half a dozen experimental ones in suburban LA, the same in the Greater New York area, and several in Washington, D.C. So that's where you have to live if you want a loaner Equinox.
Under the plastic shield is a fuel cell, below that an electric motor.
Hydrogen has a boatload of problems to overcome before it becomes one of our future fuels, and one of them is that an infrastructure of at least 12,000 hydrogen stations (there are currently 170,000 U.S. gas stations, way more than we need) have to be built before about 70 percent of the country's metro-areas population is within a couple miles of one. The classic chicken-and-egg dilemma is that the hydrogen stations need to exist before rational consumers will buy hydrogen-fueled cars, but there needs to be a substantial demand for hydrogen-fueled cars before anybody will invest in building those stations. After you, Alphonse.
GM feels that an adequate hydrogen infrastructure -- stations, pipelines, and all the rest -- can be built for an investment of $10 billion to $15 billion, which sounds huge but in fact is the cost of roughly five to seven B-2 bombers.
Interested in participating in Project Driveway? Go here to apply. And when you start answering the questions on the application, be aware that Chevy is not looking for people who want a free Equinox FCV because their beater is in the shop. They're looking for technologically savvy drivers who are environmentally concerned, open-minded, enthusiastic "early adopters" who recognize the FCV as pioneering technology and would kill to be part of it.
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When will they be available in the SF Bay area? I'm a technologically savvy driver who is environmentally concerned, fairly open-minded, an enthusiastic "early adopter" who appreciates pioneering technology and wants to be part of it. Nancy
Posted by: WhataTrip | November 03, 2007 at 12:08 AM
Nancy: Right now, GM is only offering the Equinox Fuel Cell in three influential markets: NY, LA and DC. That's where the bulk of policymakers, celebrities and opinion leaders live--although I have to imagine the SF Bay Area would be high on a list of Tier Two markets ....
Posted by: jvoelckercon | November 04, 2007 at 10:27 AM
Interesting...I would have said it's also because there aren't any hydrogen stations in the San Fran area, but there indeed are several. If I were you--can't hurt--I'd contact Chevy via their website and say you'd love to do it in SFO and you have a station near you (go here: http://www.hydrogenhighway.ca.gov/facilities/facilities.htm
If nothing else, it'll get you on the list for a possible SFO test, if that ever happens.
Posted by: stepwilk | November 04, 2007 at 01:07 PM
Thanks for the feedback. I sent an e-mail to the Chevy website re: this project. I also located a hydrogen station in Emeryville thanks to your web link. I'll let you know if anything pans out. Nancy
Posted by: WhataTrip | November 04, 2007 at 02:55 PM
Guess what? I got a call from Chevy inviting me to apply for the program when/if it comes to SF Bay Area. I'll keep you posted. Nancy
http://blogs.bootsnall.com/What+A+Trip/
Posted by: WhataTrip | November 06, 2007 at 11:39 PM