It’s been a good week for Vauxhall in regard to green car awards and for me as I learned a little more info about their prototype fuel cell vehicle as well. This week, the Vauxhall Astra received the 2015 Scottish Car of the Year as well as Eco Car of the Year awards.
I researching their website, I stumbled upon a little more info about their 4th generation fuel cell vehicle, the GM HydroGen4. According to Vauxhall, “The HydroGen4’s fuel-cell stack consists of 440 cells powering a 73 kW synchronous electric motor. The front-wheel-drive vehicle accelerates from zero to 60mph in 12 seconds and on to a top speed of 100mph. It has a range of 200 miles and features a 1.8kHh battery back-up.”
By the way both Vauxhall and Opel are wholly owned subsidiaries of General Motors (GM), so during its history this vehicle has been called the GM HydroGen(x) or Opel HydroGen(x) or Vauxhall HydroGen(x). It’s been used as part of the Project Driveway program in Europe.
The last time I had blogged about the HydroGen4 was in July of 2011. At this time, it was stated that the company intended to rollout the HydroGen4 in the 2016 or 2017 timeframe. There’s no word yet on whether this deadline is still alive. But, hopefully, the next Scotty Eco Car of the Year will be featuring a hydrogen fuel cell vehicle.
References
https://www.hydrogencarsnow.com/index.php/hydrogen-cars/gm-opel-hydrogen4-rolls-out-in-germany/
http://www.vauxhall.co.uk/vehicles/future-models-and-concepts/hydrogen4/overview.html
https://www.hydrogencarsnow.com/index.php/project-driveway/
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