A hydrogen fuel cell Colorado? Yup.

[Gorehamj]

John Goreham
Contributing Writer, GM-Trucks.com
11/17/2015

Before you slam the keyboard, this fuel cell electric vehicle Colorado is a conversion being done by GM in collaboration with the U.S. Army. The Army loves quiet, powerful vehicles that have "exportable power." Meaning a power port that soldiers can plug things like battery chargers and lights into. The U.S. Army Tank Automotive Research, Development & Engineering Center (TARDEC) is planning to build the vehicle and subject it 12 months of real-world military use. Charlie Freese, executive director of GM’s Global Fuel Cell Engineering activities commented on the project, saying, “Hydrogen fuel cell technology is important to GM’s advanced propulsion portfolio, and this enables us to put our technology to the test in a vehicle that will face punishing military duty cycles.”

 

To this writer, it seems obvious that a fuel-cell Colorado would be a huge asset to GM, particularly if the Army is paying to help develop it. Although pretty much nobody, not even green car advocates, like fuel cell vehicles, CARB assigns them three times the ZEV credits that EVs get due to their long range. That is why Toyota, Honda, Hyundai, and Mercedes-Benz have production vehicles coming to market. Even if GM leased or sold the FCEV Colorados to private owners and fleets at a huge loss it be offset by the credits GM needs to meet mandates.

 

The attached image is a sketch released by GM that shows the proposed look of a hydrogen fuel cell Army Colorado. The sketch artist is apparently not familiar with the color scheme of every single military vehicle in our arsenal. However, we do like that maroon running light bezel!

[newdude]

Slightly off topic but...the USPS LLV, they were GM powered and I think they were a bastardized S-10 frame (someone correct me if I am wrong)? Could Colorado spawn not only a Military vehicle but be a competitor for the next LLV? Maybe even Voltec or hydrogen powered? Just a thought.