INDUSTRY ISSUES GM's Wagoner: Electricity Will Drive the Industry Forward
LOS ANGELES - General Motors (GM) Chairman Rick Wagoner opened the Greater Los Angeles Auto Show last week with a keynote address to the Motor Press Guild. In his address, he shared his vision of the future of alternative energy sources in the automobile industry. "It's interesting to note that back in 1907, there were three major technologies competing to power the automobile: electricity, steam and gasoline. Each had its champions, and it was not at all clear which technology would dominate," Wagoner began. "Today, it looks like Edison might have had a great idea, maybe just a little further ahead of his time than usual." Wagoner noted that not only is the auto industry different from 100 years ago, it is very different from just five years ago. A series of geopolitical, natural and economic realities - such as extraordinary economic growth in China and India, regional conflicts in the Middle East, population growth, global climate change, and natural disasters in the Gulf of Mexico - have combined to drive home the fact that we face an increasingly uncertain energy future on a global basis. All of this has created serious concerns about energy supply, energy availability, sustainable growth, the environment and even national security - issues that, collectively, have come to be called "energy security." Today, 35 percent of the world's energy needs are met with petroleum products. "Going forward, it is highly unlikely that oil alone is going to supply all of the world's rapidly growing automotive energy requirements," Wagoner told the audience. With a declining resource base and rapidly increasing demand, he said, petroleum is simply not sustainable over the long term, both from a supply basis as well as a coming prohibitive-cost basis. The global auto industry must, as a business necessity, develop alternative sources of propulsion based on alternative sources of energy in order to meet the world's growing demand for our products. According to Wagoner, this presents the industry both a challenge and opportunity: Developing alternate sources of energy and propulsion will help to cope with future increases in global energy demand and to minimize the automobile's impact on the environment. "The key, as we see it at GM, is energy diversity," said Wagoner. "We believe that the best way to power the automobile in the years to come is to do so with many different sources of energy." He outlined GM's key conventional and alternative energy focus points:* Conventional gasoline and diesel fuels will continue to be the principal automotive fuel source in the short term. GM will continue to improve the efficiency of the internal combustion engine, but will strive to reduce the use of traditional petroleum-based fuels by partially "displacing" them with alternatives like biofuels, such as E-85 ethanol or biodiesel, and synthetic fuels, such as those derived from coal, natural gas or biomass. * GM will expand and accelerate its commitment to the development of electrically powered vehicles. Wagoner told the audience that electricity offers outstanding benefits, including the opportunity to diversify fuel sources "upstream" of the vehicle. In other words, the electricity that is used to drive the vehicle can be made from the best local fuel sources - including natural gas, coal, nuclear, wind or hydroelectric. Electrically powered vehicles, when operated in an all-electric mode, are zero-emission vehicles. And when the electricity is made from a renewable source, the entire energy pathway could be free of emissions. In addition, electrically driven vehicles can offer great performance, with extraordinary acceleration, instant torque and improved driving dynamics, he said. Wagoner explained that GM is committed to expanding its portfolio of electrically driven vehicles. The company's strategy includes gasoline-hybrid, fuel cell, plug-in hybrids and all-electric vehicles. He cited current and pending gasoline-hybrid models, fuel cell-powered Sequels and other models, plug-in hybrids and pure electric-powered vehicles as technologies that will help reduce petroleum dependence in the years going forward. "No major OEM has built a plug-in hybrid for commercial use because the battery technology doesn't yet exist," Wagoner cautioned. But he added that battery technology is evolving rapidly to one day enable these vehicles to be plugged into standard home outlets. They would be able to store significantly more energy and provide better fuel economy, while facilitating the use of diverse energy sources. "In fact, given what we know today, it's pretty clear that it will take several years to bring to market, a plug-in hybrid that will meet the expectations and real-world performance standards that our customers expect - things like safety, durability, driving range, recharge time, operating temperature range and affordability," stated Wagoner. "I'm pleased to announce today that GM has begun work on a Saturn VUE plug-in hybrid production vehicle." He explained that while the technological hurdles are real, GM believes they're also manageable. (Editor's note: See this week's News Briefs for the related story.) Wagoner also reiterated GM's commitment to hydrogen fuel cell vehicles, such as the Chevrolet Sequel:
LOS ANGELES - General Motors (GM) Chairman Rick Wagoner opened the Greater Los Angeles Auto Show last week with a keynote address to the Motor Press Guild. In his address, he shared his vision of the future of alternative energy sources in the automobile industry. "It's interesting to note that back in 1907, there were three major technologies competing to power the automobile: electricity, steam and gasoline. Each had its champions, and it was not at all clear which technology would dominate," Wagoner began. "Today, it looks like Edison might have had a great idea, maybe just a little further ahead of his time than usual." Wagoner noted that not only is the auto industry different from 100 years ago, it is very different from just five years ago. A series of geopolitical, natural and economic realities - such as extraordinary economic growth in China and India, regional conflicts in the Middle East, population growth, global climate change, and natural disasters in the Gulf of Mexico - have combined to drive home the fact that we face an increasingly uncertain energy future on a global basis. All of this has created serious concerns about energy supply, energy availability, sustainable growth, the environment and even national security - issues that, collectively, have come to be called "energy security." Today, 35 percent of the world's energy needs are met with petroleum products. "Going forward, it is highly unlikely that oil alone is going to supply all of the world's rapidly growing automotive energy requirements," Wagoner told the audience. With a declining resource base and rapidly increasing demand, he said, petroleum is simply not sustainable over the long term, both from a supply basis as well as a coming prohibitive-cost basis. The global auto industry must, as a business necessity, develop alternative sources of propulsion based on alternative sources of energy in order to meet the world's growing demand for our products. According to Wagoner, this presents the industry both a challenge and opportunity: Developing alternate sources of energy and propulsion will help to cope with future increases in global energy demand and to minimize the automobile's impact on the environment. "The key, as we see it at GM, is energy diversity," said Wagoner. "We believe that the best way to power the automobile in the years to come is to do so with many different sources of energy." He outlined GM's key conventional and alternative energy focus points:* Conventional gasoline and diesel fuels will continue to be the principal automotive fuel source in the short term. GM will continue to improve the efficiency of the internal combustion engine, but will strive to reduce the use of traditional petroleum-based fuels by partially "displacing" them with alternatives like biofuels, such as E-85 ethanol or biodiesel, and synthetic fuels, such as those derived from coal, natural gas or biomass. * GM will expand and accelerate its commitment to the development of electrically powered vehicles. Wagoner told the audience that electricity offers outstanding benefits, including the opportunity to diversify fuel sources "upstream" of the vehicle. In other words, the electricity that is used to drive the vehicle can be made from the best local fuel sources - including natural gas, coal, nuclear, wind or hydroelectric. Electrically powered vehicles, when operated in an all-electric mode, are zero-emission vehicles. And when the electricity is made from a renewable source, the entire energy pathway could be free of emissions. In addition, electrically driven vehicles can offer great performance, with extraordinary acceleration, instant torque and improved driving dynamics, he said. Wagoner explained that GM is committed to expanding its portfolio of electrically driven vehicles. The company's strategy includes gasoline-hybrid, fuel cell, plug-in hybrids and all-electric vehicles. He cited current and pending gasoline-hybrid models, fuel cell-powered Sequels and other models, plug-in hybrids and pure electric-powered vehicles as technologies that will help reduce petroleum dependence in the years going forward. "No major OEM has built a plug-in hybrid for commercial use because the battery technology doesn't yet exist," Wagoner cautioned. But he added that battery technology is evolving rapidly to one day enable these vehicles to be plugged into standard home outlets. They would be able to store significantly more energy and provide better fuel economy, while facilitating the use of diverse energy sources. "In fact, given what we know today, it's pretty clear that it will take several years to bring to market, a plug-in hybrid that will meet the expectations and real-world performance standards that our customers expect - things like safety, durability, driving range, recharge time, operating temperature range and affordability," stated Wagoner. "I'm pleased to announce today that GM has begun work on a Saturn VUE plug-in hybrid production vehicle." He explained that while the technological hurdles are real, GM believes they're also manageable. (Editor's note: See this week's News Briefs for the related story.) Wagoner also reiterated GM's commitment to hydrogen fuel cell vehicles, such as the Chevrolet Sequel:
In the next year, Wagoner said, fuel cell technology will show up in the marketplace in the form of more than 100 Chevy Equinox SUVs, which will be used to create the world's largest fuel-cell test fleet, but no further details were released. Wagoner closed his keynote address with this: "At GM, we understand that technology, by itself, is of little value ... if it isn't put to use on a large scale." He emphasized that, to make a difference, technology has to be adopted and embraced by automotive consumers, and that's only going to happen if it is packaged in vehicles that are beautifully designed, both inside and out. Tomorrow's automobiles must be flexible enough to accommodate many different energy sources. At the end of the day, this transformation will be as important as the transition from horses to horsepower. "It's an unequalled opportunity to really reinvent the automobile, as well as the auto business itself," Wagoner concluded. "It can help us accelerate industry growth in a sustainable way, mitigate and ultimately solve the energy and environmental challenges of the automobile, and create vehicles that are fundamentally better than their predecessors in virtually every way. (Source: GM)"A lot of people are confused by this ... but yes, a hydrogen fuel cell vehicle is, in fact, an electric vehicle. It drives on electricity that is created by the fuel cell. In fact, electricity and hydrogen are actually interchangeable, and a fuel cell is little more than a battery that stores electricity in the form of hydrogen. The beauty of a fuel cell vehicle like the Sequel, is that the electricity is generated onboard the vehicle, without using petroleum-based fuel, and without emissions. And like electricity, hydrogen can be made from diverse energy sources before it ever powers a vehicle."
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