General Motors will launch electric generators with a hydrogen fuel cell system. A technology that will allow the creation of fast and mobile charging points for electric vehicles. It is an alternative to expanding the recharging infrastructure. Something crucial for the massification of the fully electric car.
The deployment of a recharging infrastructure is crucial and strictly necessary to make the battery-powered electric car the first purchase option among the vast majority of drivers. However, launching a vast network of recharging points for electric vehicles is something really expensive and, on many occasions, if it were not for the collaboration between public and private entities, it is not usually carried out. Now, there are very interesting alternatives and solutions.
General Motors has announced a particular solution that makes it possible to have fast and mobile charging points for electric cars without this meaning giving up the ecological and sustainable component associated with an electric car. What is the point of an electric car if its battery is recharged by an electric generator powered by diesel? Precisely this last question is what the colossus of the North American automotive industry has solved with its proposal.
Hydrogen fuel cell electric generators
Some have been presented electric generators with hydrogen fuel cell system. The General Motors Hydrotec technology
It has been designed to respond both to the need to have recharging points for electric vehicles in a given place and time, as well as for other issues in which a conventional electric generator would have been chosen.
GM plans to launch power generators for multiple uses, including charging electric vehicles. Renewable Innovations, a partner with which General Motors works in the field of electric generators, has confirmed its plan to deploy 500 Empower fast chargers at service stations and strategic locations throughout the United States by the end of 2025.
The North American company itself has indicated that these hydrogen-powered generators are postulated as clear replacements for traditional generators that use conventional fuels and can be found in buildings, workplaces, hospitals and other facilities.
Hydrogen electric generators proposed by General Motors
GM and Renewable Innovations aim to implement this hydrogen fuel cell electric generator in three applications:
- Mobile Electric Generator. The hydrogen fuel cells that GM will supply to Renewable Innovations will enable the creation of mobile power generators. It will have the ability to supply fast charging even to electric vehicles. The demonstration presented is aimed at the Electric Power Research Institute and the first version of the mobile electric generator (MPG) is expected to be shown in mid-2022.
- Charging stations for electric vehicles. GM and Renewable Innovations have collaborated on the development of the EMPOWER fast charger. It is aimed at retail service stations that want to incorporate fast charging for electric vehicles as a service without making a large investment. The EMPOWER charger is powered by eight Hydrotec power cubes and is fueled by the hydrogen stored in their tanks. It has the ability to provide fast charging for up to four vehicles simultaneously. Before the charger needs to be refueled with more hydrogen, it will be able to serve more than 100 electric vehicles.
- Trailer Mobile Power Generator System. Last but not least, a version of the mobile power generator has also been designed on a trailer for easy transport. This prototype is equivalent in size to a 60 kW generator and produces nearly 70% more power compared to traditional diesel generators.
The person in charge of manufacturing the Hydrotec fuel cells will be none other than the joint venture that General Motors maintains with Honda in Brownstown, Michigan (United States). Renewable Innovations will handle production of the generators at its Salt Lake City facility.