Fuel cell systems are moving from science books to the front lines of auto production as General Motors and Honda on Monday announced a joint venture to make the alternative fuel components in Michigan. Their new entity - Fuel System Manufacturing LLC - will be mass producing the technology for use in vehicles by 2020. The fuel cell production will...
Fuel cell systems are moving from science books to the front lines of auto production as General Motors and Honda on Monday announced a joint venture to make the alternative fuel components in Michigan.
The 2017 fuel cell, jointly produced by GM and Honda. Their new entity - Fuel System Manufacturing LLC - will be mass producing the technology for use in vehicles by 2020.
The fuel cell production will be done in Metro Detroit's Brownstown Township, where GM's Brownstown Battery facility is the first high-volume battery assembly facility in the U.S. The plant, which employs about 120, now makes the lithium-ion battery for GM products like the Chevrolet Volt and Malibu hybrid.
The move is expected to create about 100 new jobs in the plant, officials said Monday.
Fuel cells use hydrogen to power an electric motor, emitting only water vapor. As a result, the U.S. Department of Energy is leading government and industry efforts to make hydrogen-powered vehicles an affordable, environmentally friendly, and safe transportation option, it said on its website.
Toshiaki Mikoshiba, chief operating officer of Honda North America, noted during the announcement that Honda has 40 years of manufacturing history in the U.S., where it operates 12 plants.
"We wanted new fuel cell system to be built in the United States," he said. " .... It's more efficient to be building fuel cell system for each company."
Honda wants two-thirds of its vehicle sales to be electric by 2030, Mikoshiba added.
"It's the ultimate mobility solution for our customers," he said.
GM, meanwhile, started to consider fuel cell technology in the 1960s, said Dan Nicholson, vice president of GM Global Propulsion Systems.
GM is testing fuel cells across a range of land, sea and air applications, the company said, and it has accumulated millions of miles of real-world driving in fuel cell vehicles.
"With the next-generation fuel cell system, GM and Honda are making a dramatic step toward lower cost, higher-volume fuel cell systems. Precious metals have been reduced dramatically and a fully cross-functional team is developing advanced manufacturing processes simultaneously with advances in the design," said Charlie Freese, GM executive director of Global Fuel Cell Business, in a news release. "The result is a lower-cost system that is a fraction of the size and mass."
The fuel cell collaboration started in 2013, when Honda and GM signed a co-development arrangement for a next-generation fuel cell system and hydrogen storage technologies.
"The companies integrated their development teams and shared hydrogen fuel cell intellectual property to create a more affordable commercial solution for fuel cell and hydrogen storage systems," according to a news release.
While lithium-ion batteries have found their place in automotive production and continue to expand into new product lines, the automotive fuel cell has stalled. Some issues related to it over time have been safety and storage.
However, Honda began delivery of its all-new Clarity Fuel Cell vehicle to U.S. customers in December 2016 following a spring 2016 launch in Japan.
The Michigan Strategic Fund Board voted Monday to approve a $2-million performance-based grant for the new company. That grant calls for the creation of 64 jobs, and a $48.9-million investment in the Brownstown Charter Township facility, according to the Michigan Economic Development Corporation.
At the same time, GM and Honda each will contribute $85 million. It will be operated by a board of directors, including three members of each company that will rotate into leadership positions.
GM and Honda also will attempt to advance the refueling infrastructure to make the fuel cell vehicles viable and gain consumer acceptance, officials said.
The vehicles can fuel in less than 10 minutes and have a 300-mile range, according to the DOE.