Need for speed may spur fuel cell use

Fuel cell-powered Ford Fusion runs over 207mph at Bonneville

Ford Motor Co. said a speed record set by the company's prototype fuel cell car this week may hasten use of the technology in its vehicles.

The car, powered by hydrogen and an electric motor, reached 207.297 mph Wednesday at the Bonneville Salt Flats in Wendover, Utah, the automaker said. High-speed performance is a step toward getting such powertrains in cars and trucks available to consumers, said Mujeeb Ijaz, Ford's manager of fuel cell vehicle engineering, in an interview Friday.

"If powertrains are going to be real, they will show up at Bonneville and will show up in racing," he said. "Race cars have been where passenger-car powertrains have been developed."

Ford, the second-largest U.S. automaker, and competitors are under pressure from governments to reduce emissions and gasoline consumption. Fuel cells generate electricity in a chemical process that combines hydrogen and oxygen, with only water vapor as a byproduct under ideal conditions.

The car that Dearborn, Mich.-based Ford tested at Bonneville, called the Fusion Hydrogen 999, was built to be more aerodynamic than previous fuel cell prototypes, Ijaz said.

A fuel cell vehicle design for passenger cars is "still two or three years away," he said.

Car designers, drivers and race enthusiasts gather annually for Speed Week at Bonneville, the 159-square-mile dried lake bed of compacted salt that's ideal for setting speed records.

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