Skip to main content

General Motors has been working on hydrogen fuel cell cars for 50 years

gm hydrogen fuel cell 50 years electrovan 50th anniversary
General Motors
Hydrogen-fueled electric cars? Great idea. General Motors has spent $2.5 billion working on it for 50 years and still has not figured out a cost-effective, environmentally friendly way to make it work, according to Wired.

In October 1966, the month and year Neal Diamond had his first U.S. top-10 single, Cherry, Cherry, President Lyndon B. Johnson signed a bill creating the U.S. Department of Transportation, and the Jimi Hendrix Experience was formed, GM introduced the Electrovan. An electric vehicle powered by a hydrogen fuel cell, the Electrovan had room for two people, weighed 7,100 pounds, and lumbered from zero to 60 in 30 seconds. But it ran and its only emission was water — if you don’t count the process of producing the hydrogen fuel stored in an onboard tank.

Recommended Videos

The Electrovan was never a serious product. It was a technology demonstration. A team of about 200 people worked from January to October that year, working three shifts, building a vehicle for the future. Remember, this was almost three years before Neil Armstrong placed the first human foot on the moon. The future was in science, in chemistry, and in technology.

Please enable Javascript to view this content

The work on hydrogen fuel cells continues. GM is in talks with Honda about joining forces in fuel cell production. GM and the United States Army have announced a prototype hydrogen fuel cell vehicle based on the Chevrolet Colorado truck. Honda, Hyundai, Volkswagon, Toyota, and others are developing fuel cell vehicles.

As Wired points out, however, there are two major obstacles to advancing fuel cell vehicles. “There’s no real infrastructure to get the fuel around the country and into cars. And while hydrogen’s the most abundant element in the universe, making it into a useable fuel often involves natural gas — hardly a zero-emissions process.”

So fuel cell technology development goes on, but the excitement around electric vehicles is much greater. Large automotive companies with medium-sized-country level budgets may be able to pursue multiple technologies at the same time, but the public usually is able to get its collective mind around only one new technology at a time. For now, at least, fuel cells are in a distant second place.

Bruce Brown
Bruce Brown Contributing Editor   As a Contributing Editor to the Auto teams at Digital Trends and TheManual.com, Bruce…
Honda unveils sleek electric sedan and SUV prototypes at CES 2025
Honda 0 Saloon and Honda 0 SUV prototypes.

Honda’s next-generation electric vehicles are a step closer to production. At CES 2025, the automaker unveiled prototypes of the 0 Saloon and 0 SUV, the first two of its 0 Series EVs that will start rolling off assembly lines in Ohio next year.

The two EVs follow 0 Series concept cars Honda unveiled at CES 2024. These are closer to what buyers can expect to see in showrooms, hence the label of “prototype” rather than “concept.” How close exactly? When Honda unveils a prototype, that vehicle generally makes the transition to production with minimal changes. But that would be particularly remarkable here.
They still look like concept cars

Read more
Digital Trends’ Top Tech of CES 2025 Awards
Top Tech of CES

Las Vegas is overrun. Every billboard in town is shouting about AI, hotel bar tops now sport a sea of laptops, and after hours The Strip is elbow to elbow with engineers toting yard-long beers.

That means CES, the year’s biggest tech bacchanalia, has come to town, and Digital Trends editors have spent the last four days frolicking among next year’s crop of incredible TVs, computers, tablets, and EVs. We’re in heaven.

Read more
Sony and Honda’s Afeela 1 EV makes more sense at CES than in the real world
Afeela 1 front quarter view.

The Sony car is almost here. After its creation via a joint venture with Honda in 2022 and two years’ worth of prototypes, the electronics giant’s Afeela brand is finally taking reservations for its first electric vehicle, with deliveries scheduled to start in 2026.

But will it be worth the wait? Coinciding with the opening of reservations, Sony Honda Mobility brought updated prototypes of the Afeela 1 (as it’s now officially known) to CES 2025, representing what California customers (Afeela is only taking reservations in that state) who put down a $200 refundable deposit can expect when they take delivery.

Read more