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GM Teams Up With Honda for Hydrogen Fuel Cell Mass Production

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General Motors Honda Fuel Cell

Of the newest fuel sources in vehicle manufacturing, two of the largest for passenger vehicles have been battery electric power and hydrogen fuel cells. While battery electric vehicles have largely been more successful than their hydrogen counterparts, that doesn’t mean that hydrogen vehicles aren’t still in the works.

One large reminder that hydrogen isn’t gone yet came with an announcement from General Motors and Honda that the two companies were creating the automotive industry’s first joint venture to mass produce advanced hydrogen fuel cells, which would then be used by products in both companies.

Called Fuel Cell System Manufacturing, LLC, the venture will work out of GM’s battery manufacturing facility in Brownstown, Michigan, eventually leading to mass production sometime around three years from now in 2020, creating 100 new positions.

GM and Honda already have an established collaboration agreement in place, due to Honda’s advanced implementation of fuel cells in its Clarity sedan and in GM’s unwillingness to release a fuel cell vehicle if it will quickly become obsolete.

“Over the past three years, engineers from Honda and GM have been working as one team with each company providing know-how from its unique expertise to create a compact and low-cost next-gen fuel cell system,” said Toshiaki Mikoshiba, chief operating officer of the North American Region for Honda Motor Co., Ltd. and president of Honda North America, Inc. “This foundation of outstanding teamwork will now take us to the stage of joint mass production of a fuel cell system that will help each company create new value for our customers in fuel cell vehicles of the future.”