General Motors said Tuesday it has purchased a 20 percent stake in Quantum Technologies, a California company specializing in producing components for fuel-cell cars. The alliance is expected to shorten the time to mass market commercialisation of vehicles using the environmentally-friendly technology being developed by Quantum. Larry Burns, GM's vice president of research, development and planning, described the move as "the next step on the long road to a hydrogen-based economy." GM wants to be "the first company to put one million fuel cell vehicles on the road," said Quantum chief executive Syed Hussain. The company, which has been working with GM for eight years, is developing hydrogen-storage tanks for vehicles. GM said it is aiming to produce fuel-cell vehicles commercially by 2010, but the date depends on how fast the technology can be refined and pricing issues. Fuel cells are widely considered the most promising long-term replacement for gasoline-fueled internal combustion engines that power most of today's cars and trucks. In addition to being less polluting, the engines are extremely efficient in converting gasoline or hydrogen into electric power to drive the vehicle. Although fuel cells are still in their infancy, virtually every automaker is working on the engines, experimental versions of which achieve about 200 miles to the gallon on average. （Agencies) | 通用公司周二宣布已經買下昆騰科技公司（一家位于加州專門為使用燃料電池的汽車生產配件的公司）百分之二十的股份。 二者結盟預計將縮短昆騰公司開發的環保汽車技術大規模投放市場的時間。 負責研究、發展和計劃的通用副總裁拉瑞-彭斯把這項合作稱為 "在通往氫燃料的漫漫長路上，邁出的又一步"。 昆騰公司首席執行官塞德-侯塞因說，通用公司想成為"第一家生產一百萬輛使用燃料電池汽車并投放使用"的公司。 和通用合作達8年之久的昆騰公司正在開發汽車儲氫燃料箱。 通用稱計劃到2010年時能夠生產出投入市場的使用燃料電池的汽車，不過具體日期還取決于相關技術成熟的速度以及定價問題。 燃料電池被廣泛認為是最有可能最終替代目前各種機動車輛普遍使用的汽油燃料內燃機。 除了會減少污染外，新的引擎還以更高的效率把汽油和氫能轉化成電能，驅動汽車行駛。 雖說燃料電池的開發起步時間不長，事實上每家汽車制造商都傾注了很大的力氣在新型發動機的發展上。實驗結果顯示，新發動機可以使汽車用1加侖汽油平均行駛200英里。 （中國日報網站譯） |
Updated: 2001-06-18 01:00
