The Shanghai Automotive Industry Corporation and General Motors Corporation have teamed up to rollout the Shanghai Brand Fuel Cell Vehicle. This vehicle will use GM’s fourth generation fuel cell propulsion system currently used by the Chevy Equinox Fuel Cell.
The plan is to build 10 Shanghai Brand Fuel Cell Vehicles and use these plus the Equinox FCV to shuttle VIPs at the 2010 Shanghai World Expo.
According to GM spokesman Nick Reilly, “The Shanghai and Chevrolet Equinox Fuel Cell vehicles will be featured in the most extensive fuel cell demonstration program ever conducted in China. This follows the government’s call for the creation of a sustainable transportation system. GM supports China’s move toward sustainability, and we are providing our latest fuel cell technology in line with our overall strategy of in China, with China, for China.”
In 2007 I had talked about the 2010 Shanghai World Expo and from those numbers it appears that the Chinese have scaled back their expectations in regard to how many hydrogen cars it plans to rollout. If General Motors does in fact, sometime in the future, go into bankruptcy then these numbers once again may be scaled further back.
But, since it’s Earth Day, I don’t want to end on a down note. The point is to keep moving forward with technology, with green ambitions and with the tenacity that says some day we will indeed get to where we need to be.