A hydrogen powered fuel cell research vehicle from General Motors just passed 100,000 miles mark in real world driving. The fuel cell uses renewable hydrogen and saved 5,260 gallons of petrol. The current price of petrol is $3.50 per gallon, so the fuel cell saved nearly $18,000.

Built in 2007, the Chevrolet Equinox was part of GM’s 119-vehicle Project Driveway program, which was launched the same year. The fuel cell test machine has done nearly 3 million miles so far. No other automaker in history has performed such a long run test. During the test, the vehicle saved more than $552,631 which is approximately equal to 157,894 gallons of petrol.

The Fuel Cell Equinox took the role of fleet vehicle at Walt Disney Company’s studio, that is in Burbank. After the project, it quickly became an engineering development vehicle and about 10 GM engineers drove it.

GM’s Advanced Technology Demonstration Program member, Todd Goldstein was driving the vehicle when it hit the 100,000 mile mark. He drives it for traveling between Torrance and outlying communities such as Santa Clarita, Oxnard, San Diego, Palm Springs  and Victorville.

According to Goldstein, the Equinox attracts people and many of them inquire about it. The new technology is attention grabbing and he constantly receives questions during trips.

GM is already well-known for its innovative fuel cell technologies and is currently leading the automotive industry in this category. It is ranked number 1 by Clean Energy Patent Growth Index in their file of fuel cell patents from 2002-2012.

GM is currently in the process of developing a new Fuel Cell Development Laboratory in Pontiac and all the major future cell developments will take place at this lab.

GM is also collaborating with other companies to work on fuel cell. Honda and GM are working on a long term project to develop a next-generation fuel cell system which will use hydrogen power. It is also working with U.S. Army Tank Automotive Research, Development & Engineering Center for the same purpose.