General Motors Corp. and the U.S. Postal Service have joined forces to deliver mail using hydrogen-powered fuel cell vehicles, as the U.S. Postal Service becomes the latest entry into Chevrolet's Project Driveway, the world's first and largest market test of fuel cell vehicles to date.

The announcement of this new partnership was made yesterday, July 23, 2008, at the USPS Post Office on Sand Canyon Avenue, in Irvine, California. It was attended by a variety of esteemed guests, including Mayor Beth Krom, City of Irvine; Roz Sell, GM Fuel Cell Commercial Program Manager; Walter O'Tormey, USPS Vice President Engineering; and Pete Devlin, US Department of Energy, Office of Hydrogen, Fuel Cells and Infrastructure Technologies.

Two postal stations - one in Irvine, California, and another still to be announced - will each be using hydrogen-powered Chevrolet Equinox fuel cell electric vehicles to deliver mail on regular routes six days a week. The U.S. Postal Service will immediately begin using the Equinox in Irvine and, later this year, will begin using additional vehicles to deliver the mail at another location that has yet to be decided.

This is the second test use of hydrogen vehicles by the Postal Service: The U.S. Postal Service began driving a GM HydroGen3 fuel cell vehicle in 2004 in the Northern Virginia area and in 2006, a HydroGen3 spent a year delivering mail in Irvine. Both test drive programs ended in 2007. Those programs helped GM learn how fuel cell vehicles operate under some of the most demanding conditions - learnings which helped in developing the fleet of Equinoxes.

"The Postal Service has been an invaluable partner, and they put our fuel cell vehicles through some tough, daily workouts," said Mary Beth Stanek, director of energy and environmental policy & commercialization at General Motors. "We are gaining valuable insight on how these vehicles perform in demanding, real-world situations. By participating in Project Driveway, the Postal Service also is demonstrating the need to develop a hydrogen infrastructure to support fueling these vehicles."

GM will provide the maintenance, fuel, and service of the hydrogen-powered Chevrolet Equinox fuel cell electric vehicles. Hydrogen is stored in three carbon fiber tanks mounted beneath the floorboard under and behind the rear seats. The U.S. Postal Service letter carriers will fuel the vehicle themselves at the University of California at Irvine hydrogen fueling station operated by the National Fuel Cell Research Center. The station is certified for 700-bar fueling and is already being used by other Project Driveway participants. The vehicles can hold a total capacity of 4.2 kilograms, offering a range of 160 to 200 miles.

"We are very encouraged by GM's fuel cell technology," said Walter O'Tormey, vice president, Engineering, U.S. Postal Service. "We are looking for a vehicle that operates from a fuel source that reduces--or eliminates--our dependence on petroleum products, that is good for the environment, good for our customers and good for the Postal Service."

My first thought when hearing that the Irvine Post Office had gotten just one vehicle was "Why all this hoopla over ONE vehicle?" but I am reminded of the old adage that says something like "A journey of a thousand miles begins with just one step." In this case, this postal vehicle in Irvine and the others (which still remain to be located) are among the first very important steps along California's (and the nation's) Hydrogen Highway. They help to raise public awareness of the ease ad safety of hydrogen-fueled vehicles, provide valuable research into the day-to-day performance of these vehicles, and help establish a need for a hydrogen refueling infrastructure. And in that case, even just one is still very important!

Chevrolet's Project Driveway is putting more than 100 Equinox fuel cell vehicles in the hands of real customers to help Chevy and GM understand what it will take to bring larger numbers of fuel cell vehicles to customers around the world. Currently, the program has launched in Los Angeles, metropolitan New York City area, and Washington, D.C., with further deployments expected later this year in Europe and Asia. Other participants in Project Driveway include the Walt Disney Company and Virgin Atlantic Airlines.

Did you know? the U.S. Postal Service is an independent federal agency, and is the ONLY delivery service that visits every address in the nation (we're talking 146 million homes and businesses), six days a week. It has 37,000 retail locations and relies on the sale of postage, products, and services to pay for operating expenses, not tax dollars. Next time you're standing in line to buy a stamp, consider this: The Postal Service has annual revenues of $75 billion and delivers nearly half the world's mail. It's something many of us take for granted, so next time you see your letter carrier, say thanks for his or her hard work! And if you happen to see a letter carrier driving one of these hydrogen-powered Chevrolet Equinox fuel cell electric vehicles, be sure to give him or her a high-five for delivering your mail in an eco-friendly vehicle that requires no gasoline and emits nothing more than water vapor. Cool. More information can be found at http://www.usps.gov.

Jody DeVere
President
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