General Motors has touted its plans to have a fuel-cell vehicle available for public consumption by
2010 for years. But according to Larry Burns, head of research and planning at GM, the automaker needs to push such a
vehicle to full development in as early as eighteen months (2008). This, despite the company’s current precarious
financial situation.
The reason? Competition. Virtually every major automaker is accelerating their fuel-cell
development programs. DaimlerChrysler and Toyota plan to debut their vehicles by 2012 and 2015. Honda is presently
testing its FCV in California. States Burns, “We are not the only company driving hard to be first to market with
fuel-cell vehicles. You can safely conclude that if we are going to be on market [in time] then a decision needs to be
made in the next year to 18 months.”
Burns believes there is sufficient funding in GM’s
development budget for a new vehicle, but the automaker has yet to make a decision in which direction to go with its
fuel-cell development.
[Source: FuelCellWorks.com]