New General Motors Platform Addresses Transportation Challenges
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General Motors is diving headlong into several high-tech futures simultaneously. Autonomous vehicles, fuel cells, logistics simplification, even natural disaster relief. What I notice here is GM putting all this on the back of a semi-old idea of theirs: The flexible fuel cell platform.
In 2002, GM had this show car, but the whole thing wasn’t about the car itself, but the de facto chassis it was riding on. They called it “the skateboard” because that’s what it resembled: A huge, lowered platform with wheels at all four corners.
Essential Foundations
The deck of the skateboard formed the unified chassis and the fuel cell workings. There were electric motors at each wheel, powered by the energy the fuel cell produced, and here’s the beautiful part: you could mount any number of different bodies on it. To a company like GM, who wants to make their products as efficiently as possible, this is still perceived as a stroke of genius. The bottom line is this: You make the skateboard chassis that contains all the running gear. You make them by the millions, literally millions of them, and the unit costs drop like an anchor without a chain. Then you can attach whatever body you want to that running gear, and the vehicle will still “work.” You need to produce a bunch of minivans" No problem! Just lengthen the skateboard a little, and you’re all set. Want an electric Corvette&q...
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