Chevy has Green Car Vision

[happywonton]

Chevy has Green Car Vision

WASHINGTON, DC -- The Chevrolet Equinox Fuel Cell has been honored with Green Car Journal’s Green Car Vision Award™, the first time the auto enthusiast magazine has recognized limited production vehicles for their forward-thinking technologies. The award, which recognizes a vehicle that best “envisions the road ahead,” was presented at the Washington Auto Show by Green Car Journal and GreenCar.com editor Ron Cogan.

Featuring General Motors’ fourth-generation fuel cell propulsion system, the Chevy Equinox Fuel Cell won out over the BMW Hydrogen 7, Honda FCX Clarity, Phoenix Electric SUT, and Toyota Prius Plug-In.

The Equinox Fuel Cell offers the ability to start and operate in sub-freezing temperatures, overcoming one of the fuel cell’s major challenges. It is also designed for a 50,000 mile service life. Cleanly integrated into the Equinox crossover platform, the fuel cell powertrain is engineered to be a real-world driver. While showcasing what many expect to be the automotive powerplant of the future, the Equinox Fuel Cell is also planted firmly in the present. It’s designed to meet U.S. Federal Motor Vehicle Safety Standards and offers StabiliTrac, front and roof rail side-impact air bags, four wheel ABS, and OnStar as standard equipment.

GM is producing over 100 Chevrolet Equinox Fuel Cell vehicles and placing them in consumer hands as part of the world’s largest fuel cell vehicle test fleet. This process has already begun. The ambitious program, dubbed “Project Driveway,” is part of GM’s ongoing fuel cell development that started more than 40 years ago with the hydrogen fuel cell powered Electrovan. Over the past four decades this development has featured such high profile fuel cell concepts as the Hy-wire, AUTOnomy, Sequel, and the recently announced Cadillac Provoq.

Project Driveway will take place in metropolitan areas on both coasts including New York City, Washington DC, and in California, chosen in part because these locations offer good access to hydrogen refueling facilities. The Equinox Fuel Cell has an estimated range of 200 miles between fill-ups and a top speed of 100 mph. Observant motorists will notice something missing from the rear of the car: in place of usual exhaust pipe are four slots in the rear fascia that dispense this vehicle’s only emissions … water vapor.

Along with the Chevrolet Equinox Fuel Cell, the following nominees were considered for the Green Car Vision Award™ because of their considerable forward-thinking technologies.

Source: Yahoo Autos

[Bastilles76]

I'm surprised this magazine picked the Equinox Fuel Cell over the plug-in Phoenix Electric SUT and Toyota Prius Plug-In considering how much further away from becoming practical hydrogen fuel cell vehicles are than plug-in hybrids. Last week on Salon.com there was an excellent article explaining why plug-in hybrids are much better than any of the other new technologies on the horizon. Here's the link to the article if anyone's interested:

The car of the future is here by Joseph Romm