OSHAWA, ON, Sep. 17, 2006 -- Canada NewsWire

 

There was a special Canadian connection today when General Motors Corp. committed to building the world's largest fuel cell vehicle fleet during the Company's reveal of its next generation fuel cell vehicle - the Chevrolet Equinox Fuel Cell.

"General Motors is demonstrating its commitment to hydrogen fuel cells as the answer for taking the automobile out of the environmental debate and reducing our dependence on petroleum," said Arturo Elias, President, GM Canada. "We are especially proud that through partnerships with the Federal and Ontario governments, our Canadian operations will play an important role in the preparation of the Equinox Fuel Cell which will be powered by GM's most advanced fuel cell propulsion system to-date. This demonstrates an important milestone on GM's pathway to automotive-competitive fuel cell propulsion technology development."

With support from the Federal and Ontario Governments as part of GM Canada's Beacon Project (announced in March 2005) GM's engineering centre in Oshawa Ontario is playing a key engineering role in the conversion of more than 100 Chevrolet Equinox Fuel Cell vehicles to be placed with regular GM customers in the fall of 2007. The Chevrolet Equinox, currently manufactured in Ingersoll, Ontario was the first vehicle to be both lead-engineered and built in Canada. In addition to final integration work for the Chevrolet Equinox fuel cell vehicles that will be conducted at the GM Canada regional engineering centre, special cold weather development work will be carried out for these zero emission vehicles at GM's cold weather development centre in Kapuskasing Ontario.

A comprehensive deployment plan, dubbed "Project Driveway", is designed to gain comprehensive learnings on all aspects of the customer experience and constitutes the first meaningful market test of fuel cell vehicles anywhere. A variety of drivers, in differing driving environments, will operate these vehicles in three geographic areas where hydrogen refueling is feasible: California, the New York metropolitan area, and Washington DC.

Enabled by GM's 4th generation fuel cell propulsion system, the Equinox Fuel Cell is a fully-functional crossover vehicle, engineered for an 80,000 km life. Importantly, the Equinox Fuel Cell is able to start and operate in sub-freezing temperatures. It is expected to meet all applicable 2007 US federal motor vehicle safety standards, and is equipped with a long list of standard safety features including driver, passenger and roof rail airbags, Anti-Lock Braking System (ABS), StabiliTrak stability enhancement technology and OnStar, while providing all of the environmental benefits of hydrogen fuel cell technology.

"Ontario has worked hard to support and encourage leading-edge investments in our automotive industry," said Joseph Cordiano, Minister of Economic Development and Trade. "GM is leading the way in fuel cell technology which will result in benefits to the environment and build on the province's strengths as an innovative economy."

The Project Driveway market test will provide comprehensive insight into all aspects of the customer experience, including reaction to the exciting, smooth, and quiet performance of a fuel cell vehicle, and refueling with clean hydrogen gas. These learnings will directly influence future fuel cell vehicle generations and ultimate market acceptance. Chevrolet as GM's global volume brand will lead GM's fuel cell vehicle commercialization charge.

Headquartered in Oshawa Ontario, General Motors of Canada employs more than 20,000 people nationwide. GM of Canada manufactures a variety of vehicles, engines, transmissions and other components, and markets the full range of General Motors vehicles and related services through 759 dealerships and retailers across Canada. Vehicles sold through this network include Chevrolet, Buick, Pontiac, GMC, Saturn, Hummer, Saab and Cadillac.

SOURCE: General Motors of Canada Limited

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