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General Motors to Postpone Fuel Cell Technology

Environmental cars, and more specific fuel cells technology, seems to be the main focus of car manufacturers these days. But there are a couple of setbacks which make it a little bit unpractical, the most important onebeing the cost of acquisition, which for the moment is too high. General Motors Chairman and CEO Dan Akerson considers that fuel cells will not be practical until 2020.

"We're looking at hydrogen fuel cells, which have no carbon emissions, zero. They're very expensive now, but we've, just in the last two years, reduced the price of that technology by $100,000. The car is still too expensive and probably won't be practical until the 2020-plus period, I don't know. And then there's the issue of infrastructure,"
Dan Akerson was quoted as saying by Detroit News.

Also, GM said in 2009 that the next generation fuel cell system will be half the size and 220 pounds lighter than before, and will utilize half the precious metals. Furthermore, GM said in 2009 that by 2015 fuel cells could be released on to the market, and achieve a cost-competitive limit by 2022. We’d also like to mention the fact that no car manufacturer has committed to bring fuel cell vehicles on the market before 2015. Dan Akerson also discussed the GM debt limit extension. He added that he seriously thought of what might happen if the Congress fails to extend the $14.3 trillion debt limit by Tuesday.

“I mean, if it were a perfect world, I'd like to see the United States not default, technical or otherwise, because I think that throws another level of uncertainty and instability into the system”Well, you know, I'm responsible for General Motors. And I would hate to have the job of one of the policymakers in Washington today. But I can focus an impact on what we're doing at General Motors. We have about $35 billion to $40 billion of cash on our balance sheet. That's a lot. But I don't know what's going to happen."
Akerson was quoted as saying by the afore mentioned source.
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