General Motors is gambling on hydrogen like no other U.S. auto company. GM has already spent $1 billion on developing hydrogen fuel cells and has made statements that if a car were built in high volume, they could have a cost competitive vehicle by 2010. That is well ahead of what most think is even remotely possible. The April 25th issue of Forbes magazine has an indepth look at what GM is doing and if commitment and belief are what it takes to manufacture a hydrogen car, then GM is going to have one. The article also points out many of the issues confronting GM in their pursuit. One issue they are not concerned about is where the hydrogen will come from, others are working on that. GM is concentrating on the fuel cells to power the cars. As noted the past few days, if we move toward nuclear energy, hydrogen supplies will indeed be abundant but the time from initial planning to production of first kilowatt from a nuclear plant is many years under the best of circumstances. The road to nuclear power is still a bit rough which means time is of the essence if the hydrogen economy is going to arrive in the foreseeable future.
We are daily seeing huge commitments from many companies convinced the hydrogen economy is achievable. It may well be and I hope that is the case but the objective engineer in me sees the practical difficulties that still lay ahead. We do live in interesting times.
