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Honda and GM to Build Next-Generation Fuel Cell Stacks in Michigan
DETROIT, Michigan – Honda and General Motors will begin producing a compact, next-generation fuel cell stack in about three years at GM’s Brownstown Center Township, Michigan, battery pack factory. GM and Honda will split an initial investment of about $85 million in the new joint venture, called Fuel Cell Systems Manufacturing, and plans to add nearly 100 jobs about 2020 at the Michigan plant, GM said in its joint announcement with Honda.
“Today’s announcement finally marks the arrival of fuel cells,” said Dan Nicholson, GM’s vice president for global propulsion systems. “It’s not a science project, anymore.”
Both automakers are using the joint venture to share investment and spread the technology, to go through design iterations more rapidly, and to build the technology’s economy of scale more quickly.
Although GM and Honda executives declined any details about fuel cell stack output, expected costs or Brownstown Center Township production levels, they touted lower production costs due to higher levels of mass production and lower materials costs, including platinum.
“We’ll be able to scale up to high volumes, if necessary,” Freese said.
The joint venture expansion of GM’s factory received nearly $2 million in state incentives, and Michigan Lieutenant Governor Brian Calley was on hand to make a few remarks about the importance of the joint venture to the state. So far, leases of ultra-low-volume hydrogen fuel cell models like the Honda Clarity and Toyota Mirai have been limited to California, which has increased refueling stations to about 30, according to Steven Center, vice president for environmental business and product regulations at Honda.
GM’s Milford Proving Ground has one refueling center on-site, said Mark Reuss, GM’s executive vice president for global product development, purchasing and supply chain. GM and Honda have not signed on with any refueling infrastructure programs to date.
The two automakers displayed a model of what the next-generation fuel-cell stack will look like, though there will be changes before 2020. The cube-shaped stack is probably about the size of a modern three-cylinder Ford engine. While timing would be right for the next generation Honda Clarity fuel cell car, Reuss declined to confirm his company has any hydrogen fuel-cell powered commercial model planned.
Potential applications for GM include aerospace – the automaker developed fuel cell stacks for the Apollo space program in the 1960s – and military, Reuss said, later adding that home power applications are possible. That doesn’t rule out a GM retail car or truck with hydrogen fuel-cell power, however.
Honda marketed its first fuel cell Clarity sedan from 2008-14, and began selling its second-generation Clarity in California last December. The company is convinced fuel cells will take an increasing share of the global automotive market, said Toshiaki Mikoshiba, chief operating officer for the North American region of Honda Motor Company.
In addition to its Apollo program work, GM tested fuel cells in its Chevrolet Corvair van-based Electrovan of the mid-1960s, which needed the entire cargo area of the van in order to fit the fuel cell stacks. GM also built fuel cell versions of its Chevrolet Equinox in 2009.
Honda and GM announced the cooperative venture three years ago, and they both consider sharing engineering and manufacturing resources key to reducing the cost of the technology. GM’s Reuss and Honda’s Mikoshiba both touted a positive relationship between the two automakers, which begun in 1999 with a program that led to Honda supplying 3.5-liter V-6 engines to GM for the Saturn Vue Redline. About 50,000 Saturns were built with the engine, over the life of the program.
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