By Sheldon Trollope in Detroit, Michigan, USA

AT THIS YEAR’S North American International Auto Salon, General Motors took the wraps off the Sequel, a five-seat SUV that is more significant than it looks. It runs on fuel cells that run on liquid hydrogen and emit only water vapour as a by-product.

The Sequel is a realisation of GM’s ‘skateboard’ chassis, which holds the hydrogen fuel cell, suspension, steering, braking and propulsion systems all packaged within a rolling chassis that measures less than 30cm thick. This frees up lots of space for passengers and luggage. The vehicle’s centre of gravity is lower, too, which contributes towards better handling.

More interestingly, GM promises that the Sequel has a range of more than 480km and is capable of accelerating from a standstill to 100km/h in less than 10 seconds.

Although we may never get to drive the Sequel itself, GM’s vice president of research and development, Dr Larry Burns, tells CarBuyer that it is his company’s goal to put a car very much like it on the road by the end of this decade.

CarBuyer: The claims to Sequel’s performance almost sound too good to be true. How close
is it to being a production reality?

Larry Burns: Sequel is real in nearly every aspect of the driving experience. It has the range, performance, safety and is beautifully styled in our opinion. We believe it’s the kind of car that people are going to want to buy in large quantities.

CB: How is General Motors preparing to meet its target in just five years?

LB: General Motors has fleets of hydrogen fuel cell vehicles operating now, called HydroGen3 which are based on the Opel Zafira. It recently completed a ‘marathon’ run from the Northernmost part of Norway to the Westernmost part of Portugal, demonstrating the range and performance capabilities of our technology. We’ve also had HydroGen3 in China and Japan and we have completed a one year test with FedEx in Tokyo.

CB: Do hybrid vehicles have a place in the future of the automobile or is it a dead end where their technology is concerned?

LB: About 98 percent of the cars are now dependent on petroleum. We don’t expect this percentage to switch to hydrogen overnight. We’ll reduce it gradually as more and more fuel cell vehicles become available.

In the meanwhile, we have several technologies that can help us through this transition and reduce our dependency on petroleum. Hybrid technology is one way of doing it.

CB: What makes GM’s hybrid technology different from other manufacturers’?

LB: GM is the world’s largest producer of automatic transmissions and we want to play to that transmission strength and combine that with hybrid technology. This system is roughly the size of a six-speed automatic transmission but consists of four speeds and two electric motors. One (electric) motor works to covert the mechanical energy into electricity and store it while the other acts as a motor to drive the vehicle.

Another advantage of incorporating this technology into the transmission is that it is also scalable and can be used in passenger cars just as easily as buses.