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General Motors is one of nine major automakers working on fuel cell development and vowing to bring the technology to the marketplace in fuel-cell electric vehicles by 2015.


The automaker has recently been bragging about its second generation "fuel cell cube," a package that includes the electricity-producing fuel cell stack, the compressor, electric drive motor, electronic controls and system humidifier and would fit in about the space of a large four-cylinder engine.



It is half the size of the fuel cell cube being used in the Chevrolet Equinox Fuel Cell Electric Vehicles (FCEVs) GM has been testing with real-world drivers since early 2008.


Development and fine tuning is still ongoing, but when ready for production sometime around 2015 the smaller-but-better Gen 2 system will enable the company to use fuel-cell electric drive in its low slung passenger cars as well as in SUVs




Charlie Freese, executive director of GM's fuel cell programs, sat down with Green Car Advisor recently and ran through the improvements.


They include a near-quadrupling of system life and a 31 percent hike in fuel storage capacity in a dual-tank system that is just two-thirds the size of the previous, lower-capacity triple-tank storage system.

Tags: Fuel Cell, General Motors, FCEV, GM, GM's Fuel Cell Electric Drive Systems, Hydrogen

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GM's Second Generation Fuel Cell System, Smaller is Better was originally published by Green Car Advisor. Read the full story by clicking here.