Future Power: hydrogen cellsIn the latest in our series on the future of the car, John Griffithsdrives one of the latest cars to be powered by hydrogen as it undergoes real-life testing in the US
At first sight, this sports utility vehicle (SUV) looks no different to the Chevrolet Equinox - an SUV that Mr and Mrs Average American buy in their thousands to take the kids to school or lug the groceries.
The impression endures as I climb in: this Equinox has a standard-looking dashboard and instruments, with the usual two big dials for speedometer and rev counter.
There is the typical seating arrangement that allows four to stretch out and copious luggage space. Switch on the engine, though, and you get the first difference. However it's hardly a sensational difference, but instead of the sound of an engine starting, there's just a click and a bit of subdued background whirring.
Engaging the gear, you'll notice another difference, though again it's hardly earth-shattering: the automatic transmission has only two positions, forward and reverse. I press the accelerator and away we go.
It is impressively lively from take-off, torque flooding in at what seems like exceptionally low revs in the manner of a much better-than-average turbodiesel. I watch speedometer and rev counter needles climb as the acceleration tails off and we reach cruising speed.
The ride, like all Equinoxes, is not particularly supple, but no worse than that of any other SUV. It feels as if it's powered by a meaty but very refined and almost silent four-litre V6.
Take a closer look at the rev counter and you'll realise it is not a rev counter at all. Its increments are registering not revs per minute but kilowatt hours, peaking at 93kwh, equivalent to 125bhp.
So, this is the most significant difference: this Equinox is powered not by petrol or diesel but by that proclaimed paragon of greenness, the fuel cell.
For the half hour that I drive it through the extensive, snow-spattered grounds of the Detroit Yacht Club, the exhaust is puffing out nothing more than water vapour.
For several years I have been concerned that, just as a genuinely viable battery car has been so elusive for more than a century, fuel-celled vehicles and their near-zero carbon dioxide emissions might turn out to be eternally "just around the corner".
Eight years ago, on another private estate - this time George Washington's family farm near the US capital - I listened as confident Mercedes-Benz boffins and marketing men gave assurances that fuel cell versions of the A-Class would be commercially available by 2004.
At the time, we were test-driving Necar 4, a fuel cell prototype. It was perky enough but also jerky, unrefined and most memorable for giving off, at regular intervals, a strange and unexplained mooing noise, rather like a distressed cow.
It seemed very far from becoming a production reality and, though subsequent versions have progressed greatly, so it's proved.
At the recent Detroit Motor Show, huge emphasis was placed on tackling carbon dioxide emissions and global warming. There were plenty of fuel cell-powered concept vehicles on display, all kinds of petrol or diesel-electric hybrids, cars with plug-in electric range extenders and so on.
IT WAS NOTICEABLE, THOUGH, that carmakers have learnt to be a lot more circumspect with their predictions about when the world might start seeing fuel-celled cars in meaningful numbers at more affordable prices.
Although GM and Honda are believed to have ambitions to get fuel cell vehicles into the market soon after 2010, most carmakers at the Detroit show were more likely to mumble about 2015 to 2020. The development of this technology is not easy.
Even so, General Motors' work with the Chevy Equinox Fuel Cell represents something of a watershed.
Measured in terms of noise, amenity, comfort and performance, it should be as acceptable as any of its petrol-powered siblings to even the most picky consumer. The sensation that it has much more get-up-and-go than you would expect from 125bhp occurs because, unlike an internal combustion engine, the hydrogen is used as a fuel to combine with oxygen to generate electricity to power the electric drive motor, and to create water vapour as the exhaust.
The process is effectively electrolysis in reverse. It means that, as with all electric motors, there is no gradual build up of torque as there is with a petrol or diesel engine.
Rather, the maximum is available from the moment the accelerator is pressed. This explains why the Chevy, despite weighing 2,010kg, will still reach 60mph in 12 seconds and top 100mph.
GM is not alone in moving towards fuel-celled vehicles that would be welcomed by consumers. Honda is beginning limited production of a new FCX fuel cell car for consumer trials. As in the case of GM, it is part of California's government-backed Fuel Cell Partnership of 31 companies, governmental organisations and utilities. Elsewhere, Nissan has embarked on a five-year programme with Renault to develop fuel cells.
Indeed, all the big carmakers have fuel cell programmes of one kind or another. For all the big questions centre on timing and cost. The Equinox would cost hundreds of thousands of dollars if available for sale.
The industry is far from the point where it can produce fuel cell vehicles at a cost to compete with petrol or diesel cars. But even that pales as a problem in comparison with the creation of an adequate hydrogen refuelling infrastructure to make fuel cell cars able to meet consumers' day-to-day needs.
California has 24 stations in use, with 14 more planned. In Europe, the Berlin area has around 40 in use or planned. They are mostly used by fuel-celled buses operating on fixed-mileage, local routes.
Despite the hurdles, prospects look good. GM believes hydrogen can be made available as a fuel at half the cost of petrol or diesel, and that there is already enough hydrogen produced each year that, if diverted from other uses, could power 130 million vehicles.
The investment needed is also not as daunting as it might sound. Byron McCormick, veteran boss of GM's fuel cell activities, says it will cost $10 billion to $15 billion (€6.74-€10.1 billion) to create a network of 11,700 refuelling stations to cover the US's top 100 urban areas and 130,000 miles of highways.
- FT Service
FACTFILE
Chevrolet Equinox fuel cell
HOW MUCH? Several hundred thousand dollars - if you could buy one. They are currently not on sale
HOW FAST? 0-60mph in 12 seconds, top speed 100mph
HOW THIRSTY? 45-50m/kg of H2 (100-plus mpg petrol/diesel equivalent)
HOW GREEN? About as "green" as you can get. The "exhaust" is water vapour. But H2 needs to be made - only if from wind, wave or nuclear would the Equinox's carbon "footprint" be invisible.
YOU MIGHT ALSO LIKE: to buy something else in the meantime. Only the most optimistic carmakers hope to have fuel cell cars on the road by 2010.