Camp Pendleton to Get Fuel-Cell SUV From GM

Marines at Camp Pendleton will get a new hydrogen fuel-cell sport utility vehicle from General Motors Corp. at the end of the month, almost a year before the automaker begins delivering 100 of the SUVs to motorists for testing.

GM is scheduled to donate a prototype of the fuel-cell SUV to the Army in Washington this morning -- and Army officials will deliver the specially equipped Chevrolet Equinox to the Marines late next week, GM spokesman Scott Fosgard said.

The vehicle uses a new-generation fuel-cell system.

Fosgard said data collected from the military in the next few months would help GM engineers fine-tune civilian models of the fuel-cell Equinox that are to hit the road in the fall of 2007.

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John O’Dell