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A HEAD START ON THE FUTURE
As part of gM, ACDelco enables a unique opportunity for technicians to look under
the hoods of fuel-cell vehicles
Monroe County, N.Y., holds a unique position in the
automotive world. The city of honeoye falls—located
about halfway between Rochester and the finger Lakes
area — is home to one of gM’s advanced powertrain
technology laboratories, and nearby communities and
municipalities in the county have become real-world
proving grounds for the emerging technologies.
County-owned vehicles, for example, include gM’s hybrid
sedans and trucks, along with bio-diesel-, CNg- and
E85/E20 ethanol-powered vehicles. Monroe County is
also home to one of the nation’s few hydrogen refueling
stations that is used to replenish the fuel supply of
fuel-cell vehicles.
With so much alternative-fuel activity in the area, there’s
considerable interest from local technicians and other
automotive professionals about the impact such
technology may have on their businesses in the future.
And when ACDelco representative george Matic ran
into gM fuel-cell engineer David Savage at the grocery
store, an idea was hatched for a summit meeting that
would give local technicians an overview education on
the nuts and bolts of fuel-cell vehicles.
It all came together recently, as Matic collaborated with
warehouse distributor Nu-Way Auto Parts and officials
from Monroe County to conduct the one-of-a-kind
seminar. David Savage and another representative from
the honeoye falls lab were the featured speakers.
“There is a lot of interest from technicians who want to
get a handle on this upcoming technology,” says Mark
Szwarcberg, market area service manager for ACDelco.
“When the word went out about the seminar, we got an
immediate and enthusiastic response.”
About 100 local TSS, Key fleet and ISC technicians, as
well as other automotive specialists, attended the event
that was hosted at Monroe County’s fleet maintenance
facility in Chili, N.Y. Savage walked the attendees through
the design, operation and performance characteristics of
hydrogen fuel-cell-powered vehicles.
gM brought prototype fuel-cell vehicles based on
modified versions of the Chevrolet Equinox. The vehicles
were part of gM’s recent Project Driveway program that
placed them with cities and individuals around the country
for real-world evaluation. Seminar attendees were given
the opportunity to ride the vehicles, but not surprisingly,
their interests were really piqued when Savage put one
of the Equinoxes on a lift and allowed the mechanically
minded technicians to examine its unique features.
“There wasn’t a person left in his seat when that vehicle
was raised on the lift,” says Szwarcberg. “Everyone
wanted to see if there were going to be radical differences
in the way they worked on vehicles of the future. I think
they were pleasantly surprised to find it wasn’t alien
technology and servicing these vehicles won’t be radically
different from today’s cars.”
That the seminar came together with the assistance
from engineers and prototype vehicles is a testament to
the unique relationship shared between ACDelco and
general Motors.
“I don’t think you’d see such a unique program come
together without that relationship,” says Szwarcberg.
Bill Yandow, from Rochester, New York-based Nu-Way
Auto Parts, agrees. “The gM lab is tied in very well locally,
so it was great that we were able to leverage their
engineers for the seminar.”
Nu-Way Auto Parts often partners with ACDelco for local
technician programs and seminars. The parts distributor
supports TSS shops and ACDelco’s Key fleet customers,
and coincidently, one of Yandow’s customers is the fleet
department for Monroe County.
“When they heard about the plans for the fuel-cell seminar,
they insisted on hosting it at their facility,” says Yandow.
“Because they are already using alternative-fuel vehicles,
they wanted to play an integral part in the event.”
Yandow reports the fuel-cell seminar was one of the
most popular events staged by Nu-Way Auto Parts and
ACDelco.
“It was a great instance of synergy, when all the right
elements came together for a very informative meeting,”
he says. “It’s something that would only happen with
ACDelco and its relationship with gM.”
by Barry Kluczyk photos courtesy of general Motors
HOW A FUEL-CELL
VEHICLE WORKS
A hydrogen fuel-cell-powered
vehicle uses an electrochemical
process to produce electricity
from hydrogen. No petroleum
products are used in a fuel-cell
vehicle and the only “exhaust” is
clean water vapor.
Basically, each fuel cell consists
of an electrolyte and a pair of
catalyst-coated electrodes, a
porous anode and cathode.
hydrogen (or a hydrogen-rich fuel)
is fed to the anode where the
catalyst separates the hydrogen’s
negatively charged electrons from
the positively charged ions. At the
cathode, oxygen combines with
electrons, resulting in water or
hydroxide ions.
The electrons of the anode side
SERVICE BAY
of the cell cannot pass through the
electrolyte to the positively charged
cathode side. They must travel around it
via an electrical circuit. This movement
is the electrical current that is used to
drive the vehicle. There is no internal
combustion engine or conventional
transmission, as the electric power is
sent to electric motors at each wheel. n
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