As cars like the Toyota Mirai and the upcoming Honda Clarity Fuel Cell demonstrate, hydrogen fuel-cell technology in passenger cars is ready for prime time. But as the expensive sticker prices on those vehicles underscore, their greater cost of manufacturing is just one of many hurdles to overcome before these vehicles become more than a narrow subset of the green-car niche.
To address this problem, General Motors and Honda are teaming up to manufacture core fuel-cell hardware together at GM?s Brownstown Township, Michigan, facility, which will mass-produce components beginning around 2020. Each company is investing $42.5 million into the venture, which effectively will function as one company with fully shared development teams. It is anticipated that the effort will create nearly 100 jobs. The components made at the Brownstown facility, which already assembles battery packs for a number of GM plug-in hybrids, including the Chevrolet Volt, will include a downsized next-generation fuel-cell stack.
Although several automakers have already partnered as groups to share in research-and-development costs for hydrogen fuel cells?Toyota and BMW, for one example, and Mercedes-Benz, Ford, and Nissan/Renault, for another?this is touted as the first fuel-cell-related manufacturing joint venture. The agreement will address manufacturing cost concerns through greater economies of scale and common sourcing.
Fuel cells harness a chemical reaction between oxygen and hydrogen (with the hyd...