GM's Fuel-Cell Hedge

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Although it also offers ordinary gasoline, it could scarcely be considered an ordinary gas station.

I Brake for Fuel Cells

Although Project Driveway is much more than a simple market research study, Vann said GM will carefully collect feedback from test-drivers, especially with regard to driving impressions, likes and dislikes, and reactions from other motorists and passersby.

In a short test-drive, this reporter felt that the fuel-cell Equinox drove like an ordinary, internal-combustion vehicle, only normal operation is nearly silent, except for road noise from the tires and the sound of a compressor pushing outside air into the fuel-cell "stack." The fuel-cell car weighs about 400 pounds more than the internal-combustion vehicle, but the extra weight didn't have much effect on acceleration and handling in normal highway or city driving.

Braking did feel a little different, in that lightly applied brakes at speeds over about 30 mph did not have much immediate effect. Slowing the car required higher brake pressure. The fuel-cell Equinox has a high-voltage battery, but unlike a gas-electric hybrid, the battery is there to run other systems, like the heating, ventilation, and air conditioning, and not to propel the car.

But like a hybrid, applying the brakes in a fuel-cell car recaptures some energy from the wheels, to recharge the battery. That process is probably affecting the brake feel. "We're working on that," says Daniel O'Connell, GM's director of Global Field Service, Support & Infrastructure.

No Practical Battery for the Volt Yet

Complicating matters, the fuel-cell Equinox is strictly a rolling test bed for the fuel-cell power train and other features. GM is not planning to offer a fuel-cell Equinox in the foreseeable future, so that will limit the usefulness of consumer feedback specific to the Equinox.

In addition, GM has many other irons in the fire, in alternative-fuel vehicles, including flex-fuel vehicles that can run on a mixture of 85% ethanol and gasoline. In addition, GM in January unveiled the Chevrolet Volt concept car, a plug-in hybrid that runs off a battery that can be recharged by plugging it into the wall at home or office. It also has a small, conventional internal-combustion engine that can recharge the battery.

The bad news: Neither GM nor anyone else has a practical battery that will make the Volt feasible as proposed. GM said it hopes to have such a battery by 2010-12. In the meantime, as GM invests in several different technologies, it designed the Volt on its "E-flex" platform. The platform can accommodate either the plug-in hybrid or a fuel-cell drivetrain, Vann said.

Pursuing different strategies simultaneously makes sense, says Bill Pochiluk, president of consulting firm AutomotiveCompass in West Chester, Pa. "What GM is doing, really, is managing risk," he says. "It may look like it's slow, but it's working."

Jim Henry is a reporter covering the automotive industry and automotive trends in BusinessWeek's New York office.