1948 Chevrolet truck converted to hydrogen by Diversified Creations in Brighton, … [+]
Mike Copeland spent more than a quarter of a century working on some of the coolest cars to come out of Detroit for General Motors. All were powered by internal combustion engines that burned polluting gasoline or diesel.
He doesn’t anymore. At his performance vehicle business in Brighton, Mich. Copeland is working on vehicles that are still powered by internal combustion engines, except the fuel is emission-free hydrogen.
The greedy hotshot and car guy, the guy usually described as having gasoline running through his veins, also has the future on his mind—for Earth and his six-year-old grandson.
Mike Copeland, CEO Arrington Performane and Diversified Creations, Brighton, Michigan.
“Between my wife and I, we’ve got 20 cars, a bunch of hot rods, you know, nice cars and more,” Copeland said during an interview at his shop. “We wanted our now six-year-old grandson to be able to drive our cars when he turns 16, when he gets his license. We are interested in the world in which he is going to live. On the path we’re on, there might not even be any gas in that period of time.”
Copeland’s journey toward hydrogen was accelerated through a long-standing relationship he had with some engineers at the German automotive company Bosch. After leaving GM, Copeland teamed up with some of those Bosch engineers to build a special Chevrolet Camaro for comedian Jay Leno.
Fast forward, Copeland had some experience with hydrogen while working in Europe, and together with Bosch, built an H2 engine truck to present and demonstrate at the 2011 Specialty Equipment Market Association show—the massive aftermarket trade show that held every fall in Las Vegas.
The truck was built at Copeland’s facilities, Diversified Creations and Arrington Performancewho both reside in a large building in Brighton, about an hour northwest of Detroit.
On this day, Copeland shot up his wife’s 1948 Chevy truck that was sitting inside the Diversified Creations showroom. Don’t worry about harmful emissions from the truck’s internal combustion engine. It is powered by the hydrogen tank located in its bed.
Copeland says one hydrogen vehicle has generated 500 horsepower while experimenting with the process.
How is this possible? Copeland won’t divulge the company secrets of exactly how the hydrogen conversion takes place, saying only, “there are 229 million internal combustion vehicles registered in the United States. OK, what are we going to do? Throw them away? So our process and goal is to create conversion kits that allow them to be converted to hydrogen.”
It is important to note that running on hydrogen is different from hydrogen fuel cells that convert the gas into electricity. Copeland’s idea is pure hydrogen.
He points out that hydrogen is a common element that does not require the consumption of other fuels to create it, such as electricity to charge electric vehicle batteries.
“How many pictures do you see of a large diesel generator running to charge electric cars? Most electricity is generated by coal. An interesting byproduct of generating electricity with nuclear is that it produces hydrogen when they do this. This hydrogen can be captured and used to power hydrogen,” he explained.
While the auto industry is very focused on developing, manufacturing and marketing battery electric vehicles, Copeland reveals that there is a lot of interest in hydrogen among many car companies, including GM, Ford, BMW, Hyundai and Toyota, several of which have evaluated his vehicles.
He also points out that hydrogen is used in large fleets, such as those operated by Walmart and Amazon, and that is where his company is currently focused.
“We’re going to work on fleets and things like that. Our program is designed if you had a fleet of 1,000 vehicles and wanted to be carbon neutral for whatever purpose, our packages will deliver.”
Copeland is blunt when asked whether hydrogen is a sustainable fuel when considering the race to build an EV recharging infrastructure.
“It’s more than sustainable,” he says. “Hydrogen is common throughout the country. The last infrastructure bill included a bunch of money to build basically $7 billion to build seven to 10 of what they call supercenters, hydrogen production centers around the country.”
The point is to save the Earth and make it a better place for his six-year-old grandson to cruise around on until he gets his license.
For those who can’t figure out what the fuss is about, Copeland has a simple explanation.
“People say, well, if you measure carbon, it was only point 02 in the atmosphere and now it’s point 04. Yeah, well, that’s double. So if we can help solve a problem and we can help find a way to reduce that carbon and we can help make the world a better place, then why not do it?”
