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Oct. 5, 2005
Thirty Vehicles In Five Cities
Anaheim – Thirty hydrogen-fueled hybrid cars will be demonstrated in five
cities across the Southland starting this month in a major step toward
expanding the region’s hydrogen fueling infrastructure and commercializing
fuel cell vehicles.
Miguel Pulido, Mayor of Santa Ana and a Governing Board member of the
South Coast Air Quality Management District, announced the new demonstration
program today during a news conference at the California International Auto
Show at the Anaheim Convention Center. The show opens to the public this
evening and runs through Sunday. AQMD will display a fuel cell vehicle and
several hybrid cars at its exhibit in the event’s “Auto Show Underground.”
For the demonstration fleet, Quantum Technologies of Irvine is converting
30 hybrid Prius cars to burn hydrogen instead of gasoline. The
hydrogen-fueled, internal-combustion-engine vehicles will meet the state of
California’s strict Super Ultra Low Emission Vehicle emission standards for
smog-forming nitrogen oxides. Unlike their gasoline-fueled counterparts,
they will have no carbon monoxide, hydrocarbon or carbon dioxide emissions.
The vehicles will be demonstrated in municipal fleets in Burbank,
Ontario, Riverside, Santa Ana and Santa Monica. Each city as well as AQMD
will have five vehicles.
In addition, each city will have its own hydrogen refueling station.
Electrolyzer units that use electricity to separate hydrogen from water will
be installed in Burbank, Riverside and Santa Monica. In Santa Ana and
Ontario, mobile units containing compressed hydrogen will serve the
demonstration fleets. AQMD has operated its own electrolyzer hydrogen
refueling station since August 2004.
The demonstration fleet is one of many projects co-sponsored by AQMD’s
Technology Advancement Office in an effort to help develop hydrogen
internal-combustion-engine vehicles as well as “plug-in” hybrids. AQMD also
is leading the effort involving several other organizations to establish a
hydrogen fueling network in Southern California. So far, four stations are
operational and an additional 10 (including those in the five cities) are
expected to be completed by the end of next year.
AQMD is the air pollution control agency for Orange County and major
portions of Los Angeles, San Bernardino and Riverside counties.
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