The Power and Transportation Future - Hydrogen and Fuel Cells: Advances in Transportation and Power - page 260

to reduce drag. The tires are low-rolling-resistance, self-sealing Michelins
which also saves the weight of the spare. The aerodynamic body sits only
five inches off the ground and there are 2000 spot welds in the aluminum
body. The cars came with air conditioning and CD players standard and
were sold through Saturn dealers.
The EV1 assembly line was in the old Buick Reatta plant, next to
the much larger and more automated facility that assembled Chevrolet
Cavalier and Pontiac Sunfire convertibles. About 30 employees essentially
hand built the cars on the line and traded off tasks.
GM built efficiency into their electric cars. They worked on reducing
energy consumption, mass, and accessory loads, and improving aerody-
namics, rolling resistance, and driveline efficiency. There was a 50-kilo-
watt fast charger, which could charge an EV1 in 10 minutes. An alumi-
num space frame allowed the body, without batteries, to weigh in at 1500
pounds. The 1300 pound battery pack sat on a 1500 pound body resulting
in a total weight of about 2800 pounds. Getting the batteries to produce
more power, weigh less, and take up less space was one of the goals in cars
like this.
These same concepts could be used in fuel cell powered cars.
Ultralight fuel cell vehicles are a part of the current generation of clean
concept cars, sometimes called Green Cars. In 1996, when EV1 became
available, it accelerated the development of the hybrid Toyota Prius and
GM would show a number of alternative-fueled concept cars at the 1998
Detroit Show. Now every auto show has its alternative cars.
FUEL CELL ELECTRIC VEHICLES
A fuel cell car, bus or truck is in essence an electric vehicle powered by
a stack of hydrogen fueled cells that operates like a refuelable battery. A bat-
tery uses chemical energy from its component parts, while a fuel cell uses an
electrochemical process to generate electricity and receives its energy from
the hydrogen fuel and oxygen that are supplied to it. Like the plates in a bat-
tery, the fuel cell uses an anode and cathode, attached to these are wires for
the flow of current. These two electrodes are thin and porous.
Most automotive fuel cells use a thin, fluorocarbon-based polymer
to separate the electrodes. This is the proton exchange membrane (PEM)
that gives this type of fuel cell its name. The polymer provides the electro-
lyte for charge transport as well as the physical barrier to block the mixing