Enter the Electrovan and Electrovair II
General Motors' recent collabo with the US Army didn't just come out of nowhere, because, whether you believe it or not, GM's research on fuel cell powertrain goes back 50 years.
You know what else turns 50 this year, besides the Chevrolet Camaro? GM's fuel cell technology research, which had its foundation set by the Electrovan – the world's first hydrogen-powered electric vehicle.
The Electrovan fuel-cell development team was made of 200 engineers who literally worked day and night to perfect the project that started out of John F. Kennedy's 1962 challenge to NASA, which implied the safe landing of a man on the moon until the end of the decade.
“We had three shifts of people on this project starting in January 1966 and finishing 10 months later. We had one running demo for the Progress of Power press conference in October that year.”
Floyd Wyczalek, Project Manager of the Electrovan development, now aged 91
The Electrovan was, in fact, nothing more than a GMC Handivan converted by GM's Research Laboratories which was strictly used for testing purposes around the Technical Center campus in Warren, Michigan.
It could run for around 100-150 miles (160-240 km) with full liquid hydrogen and oxygen tanks. However, GM's biggest hurdle back then is still a nuisance today: fuel cell power didn't come cheap.
Besides the Electrovan, GM also worked on a Silver-Zinc battery-powered Electrovair II passenger car, which was essentially a test bed for motor and control development.
But we'll let the two videos below tell the rest of the story.