GM and Honda combine forces to build fuel cells

Honda and General Motors have announced that they will join forces and invest more than $85 million each to fast track the development of hydrogen fuel cell powertrains.

A partnership first formed back in 2013, the renewed collaboration will see a new manufacturing facility begin building the hardware needed at an existing GM factory south of Detroit.

GM already has prototype vehicles in development and claims it has racked up millions of kilometres testing. Honda, meanwhile, has launched its second-generation production fuel cell vehicles. The FCV Clarity is already on sale in the US and will soon be sold in Europe.

It's thought as part of the GM-Honda deal the cars the joint venture will eventually produce will share high-compression tanks, cooling system, and electronic architecture but not platforms, batteries nor electric motors.

GM's first hydrogen fuel cell production vehicle will go on sale in 2020 to coincide with the opening of the new manufacturing facility.

In the future both car makers have announced that next-generation fuel cell cars will be lighter, smaller, more powerful and both cheaper to make and cheaper for the consumer to buy.

Advances have already been made. According to the car makers, the new GM-Honda fuel cell stack (that converts hydrogen into electricity) has been shrunk to the same size as a conventional 1.5-litre engine.