VEHICLE CONCEPT : CHEVROLET SEQUEL The car— reinvented By Barbara and Bill Schaffer magine that you are the head of Like most concepts, the Sequel interior research and development for the is clean and simple. To make it easy for iworld’s largest automaker, when people like us to drive, the controls are the CEO tells you to reinvent the traditional. The Sequel test vehicle came car. That order must have given GM Vice equipped with two engineers to explain President of Research & Development how it works and to otherwise protect the and Strategic Planning Larry Burns sleep- multi-million-dollar concept from auto less nights. Where do you start? writers tempted to test quarter-mile We recently drove the latest chapter of acceleration or to see if it will do burnouts. the first four years of work, the Chevrolet We expected the Sequel to glide silently Sequel concept. On the surface, it looks over the roads, but instead there was a much like many of the new crossovers loud whine as the fuel cell converted introduced recently by other manufac- hydrogen into electricity to power the turers. There are no wings or glass cano- electric drive motors. We were told much pies; visually the only features that of the noise would be removed on future identify the Sequel’s innovative technol- models. Engineers tell us this vehicle will all surfaces, better torque, shorter ogy are large inlets and outlets in the accelerate from 0 to 60 mph in about 10 stopping distances and the ability to front and rear used to pull in oxygen for seconds and has a range of about 300 “talk” to other vehicles about traffic and the fuel cells and cool the system. miles. The fuel cell system is also able to road conditions. Under the attractive skin, however, lies start and operate in sub-freezing temper- Later the same day we were introduced the most technologically advanced auto- atures and has a life expectancy of about to the next chapter in the reinvention mobile ever built. “General Motors is 50,000 miles (very good for a fuel cell process, the Chevrolet Equinox Fuel Cell. proving that advanced technology can system). Specs like that make the Sequel GM is building more than 100 Equinox remove the automobile from the environ- more reality than scientific experiment. Fuel Cell vehicles for consumer use. mental debate and reduce our depen- “Sequel fundamentally changes the Labeled “Operation Driveway,” the pro- dence on petroleum,” explains Larry DNA of today’s automobiles…exchanging gram will place these vehicles in different Burns. “Chevy Sequel clearly shows that an internal combustion engine, petrol- driving environments in three parts of the our vision for the future of the automobile eum and mechanical systems for fuel cell country: California, Washington DC and is real and sustainable.” propulsion, hydrogen and electrical sys- the New York metropolitan area, so This is the first GM vehicle to integrate a tem,” Burns said. “In Sequel, GM has engineers can test fuel cell propulsion in fuel cell propulsion system with advanced created a real vehicle that promises to real world conditions and use the technologies like wheel hub motors, brake- excite customers and lead to long-term, information to move to the next chapter by-wire controls, lithium-ion batteries and sustainable automotive transportation.” in the process of reinventing the a lightweight aluminum structure. The fuel This is just the start, future models will automobile that GM CEO Rick Wagoner is hydrogen and exhaust is water vapor. have unequaled traction capabilities on challenged the company to do in 2002. ■ ARIZONADRIVER • January-February 2007 • 45.