The Hy-wire (Hydrogen drive-by-wire) is a
concept car
A concept car (also known as a concept vehicle or show vehicle) is a car made to showcase new styling or new technology. Concept cars are often exhibited at motor shows to gauge customer reaction to new and radical designs which may or may not ...
from
General Motors
General Motors Company (GM) is an American Multinational corporation, multinational Automotive industry, automotive manufacturing company headquartered in Detroit, Michigan, United States. The company is most known for owning and manufacturing f ...
originally introduced in January 2002.
The car runs on
hydrogen
Hydrogen is a chemical element; it has chemical symbol, symbol H and atomic number 1. It is the lightest and abundance of the chemical elements, most abundant chemical element in the universe, constituting about 75% of all baryon, normal matter ...
fuel cell
A fuel cell is an electrochemical cell that converts the chemical energy of a fuel (often hydrogen fuel, hydrogen) and an oxidizing agent (often oxygen) into electricity through a pair of redox reactions. Fuel cells are different from most bat ...
s and uses a
drive-by-wire
Drive by wire or DbW in the automotive industry is the technology that uses electronics or electro-mechanical systems in place of mechanical linkages to control driving functions. The concept is similar to fly-by-wire in the aviation industry. ...
system, meaning that the car is controlled
electronically
Electronics is a scientific and engineering discipline that studies and applies the principles of physics to design, create, and operate devices that manipulate electrons and other electrically charged particles. It is a subfield of physics and ...
. GM asked school children to name the car, and one of them suggested "Hy-wire".
In 2003, General Motors stated that it was confident that it could produce a commercially viable model by 2010.
[
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Design
Due to hydrogen fuel cell drive system used by the Hy-wire, the conventional car layout has been revamped. Without the need for a conventional engine block
In an internal combustion engine, the engine block is the structure that contains the cylinders and other components. The engine block in an early automotive engine consisted of just the cylinder block, to which a separate crankcase was attach ...
and transmission
Transmission or transmit may refer to:
Science and technology
* Power transmission
** Electric power transmission
** Transmission (mechanical device), technology that allows controlled application of power
*** Automatic transmission
*** Manual tra ...
system coupled to the steering column
The automotive steering column is a device intended primarily for connecting the steering wheel to the steering mechanism.
Secondary functions
A steering column may also perform the following secondary functions:
*energy dissipation managemen ...
and pedals
A pedal (from the Latin '' pes'' ''pedis'', "foot") is a lever designed to be operated by foot and may refer to:
Computers and other equipment
* Footmouse, a foot-operated computer mouse
* In medical transcription, a pedal is used to control ...
through mechanical linkage, the car's power system and single electric motor are built into a flat skateboard configuration. This serves to lower the car's center of gravity
In physics, the center of mass of a distribution of mass in space (sometimes referred to as the barycenter or balance point) is the unique point at any given time where the weighted relative position of the distributed mass sums to zero. For ...
, but more importantly to standardize vehicle drive train systems. Because all propulsion and energy storage systems are housed in the skateboard, designers are free to arrange the passenger compartment however they see fit. This allows for highly flexible modular vehicle configurations such as a 4-door sedan, mini van, or even a small bus to be placed on the same drive system, with the only difference being the shape of the car's upper body and the location of seats. The skateboard itself contains crumple zones similar to those in conventional automobiles.
Driver interface
The car's drive-by-wire system coupled with cameras instead of mirrors and multiple LCD
A liquid-crystal display (LCD) is a flat-panel display or other electronically modulated optical device that uses the light-modulating properties of liquid crystals combined with polarizers to display information. Liquid crystals do not em ...
displays for feedback to the driver theoretically allows the driver's seat to be located anywhere; however, most current designs still favor the driver in front of or beside the other passengers for maximum visibility. The coupling of the controls to the drive system means neither the driver's seat nor the steering and throttle controls must be fixed in place. For example, the 2003 concept model has a single control interface that can be operated from either the right or left front seats,
Powerplant
The Hy-wire is powered by a fuel cell capable of producing 94 kilowatts of power continuously and up to 129 kilowatts for short periods.compressed hydrogen
Compressed hydrogen (CH2, CGH2 or CGH2) is the gaseous state of the element hydrogen kept under pressure. Compressed hydrogen in hydrogen tanks at 350 bar (5,000 psi) and 700 bar (10,000 psi) is used for mobile hydrogen storage in hydrogen vehi ...
located in the chassis. With its three-phase
Three-phase electric power (abbreviated 3ϕ) is a common type of alternating current (AC) used in electricity generation, Electric power transmission, transmission, and Electric power distribution, distribution. It is a type of polyphase system ...
electric motor the 1,814 kg (4,000 lb) vehicle has a top speed of 160 km/h (100 mph).[
]
See also
* General Motors Sequel
* List of fuel cell vehicles
This is a list of fuel cell vehicles (FCV), or fuel cell electric vehicles (FCEV), that use a fuel cell to power an electric drive system.
For Hydrogen internal combustion engine vehicles (HICEV) see the List of hydrogen internal combustion engi ...
* Zero-emissions vehicle
A zero-emission vehicle (ZEV) is a vehicle that does not emit exhaust gas or other pollutants from the onboard source of power. The California definition also adds that this includes under any and all possible operational modes and conditions. T ...
Video of Hy-wire in operation
by Top Gear
Top Gear may refer to:
* "Top gear", the highest gear available in a vehicle's manual transmission
Television
* ''Top Gear'' (1977 TV series), a British motoring magazine programme
* ''Top Gear'' (2002 TV series), a relaunched version of the ori ...
References
{{DEFAULTSORT:General Motors Hy-Wire
Hydrogen cars
Fuel cell vehicles
Hy-wire