PONTIAC, Michigan — General Motors Co. may be relentlessly promoting an electric future with its sleek-looking EVs for retail customers, but for decades the automaker also has been developing hydrogen fuel cell propulsion technology — and now it's ready to start making money from it.
The movement to commercialization starts with the Hydrotec fuel cell lab and work areas in Pontiac that are three football fields large and neighbor other propulsion operations. It's here where teams collaborate to improve the technology that will be used to power larger modes of transportation from semis to trains, free of emissions.
About 300 employees are working on Hydrotec, GM's hydrogen fuel cell operation that aims to run like a startup while still being connected to the resources of America's largest automaker. The team has been working, mostly behind the scenes, for years to enhance this technology to offer another way toward a zero-emissions future — one that fuels much faster and weighs significantly less than an electric battery.
