• USA Today, Monday, September 25, 2006 12:15 PM

Supporting its goal of selling cars fueled by hydrogen by 2011, General Motors is building a prototype of an affordable, compact device that would allow customers to fill their cars overnight in their own garages. Using either electricity or sunlight, the unit would help sidestep the problem of persuading oil companies to invest in expensive new hydrogen stations that would compete with their core product, gasoline. Next year, GM plans to place 100 hydrogen fuel-cell versions of its Chevrolet Equinox SUV into the hands of consumers in Washington, D.C., California and New York. Fueling is a problem. California, with the most hydrogen filling stations of any state, has just 23 and another 15 on the drawing boards. One big reason: expense. Shell's only existing hydrogen filling station in the Washington, D.C. area cost $2 million. Honda has already created a model for a home-refueling hydrogen unit, and also has a solar-powered refueling station in operation at its test center in Torrance, Calif. that makes enough hydrogen for 30 miles of driving a day. Its new FCX, with a smaller, lighter fuel cell and a range of more than 270 miles, is due to arrive in the USA in 2008.

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