TECHNOLOGY REPORT

GM and TARDEC co-developing fuel cell powered Chevrolet Colorado for military evaluation

General Motors recently announced that its fuel-cell engineering team is working with TARDEC (the U.S. Army Tank Automotive Research, Development & Engineering Center) to develop a prototype pickup truck with a commercial hydrogen fuel-cell powertrain that is capable of meeting U.S. military duty cycles. The vehicle will be put into daily use and driven by soldiers for 12 months.

A Chevrolet Colorado is being converted to a fuel-cell vehicle (FCV) powered by a commercial hydrogen fuel-cell propulsion system. While the two organizations provided no details of the system, it is believed to be a higher-output variant of GM's fourth-generation fuel-cell stack similar to those used in the automaker's fleet of 100 Chevrolet Equinox FCVs.