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Honda, GM fuel-cell partnership wants to reduce hydrogen refueling costs

To paraphrase the old political adage, it's the cost, stupid. Dollar signs are what's prompting Honda and General Motors to partner up to accelerate development of a hydrogen fuel cell system. With about half the cost of a fuel-cell system tied up in its fuel-cell stack, GM and Honda are looking to help each other drive costs down, according to a presentation by GM fuel cell research and development director Mark Mathias said in a presentation at the SAE 2014 Hybrid & Electric Vehicle Technologies Symposium. According to Green Car Congress, Honda and GM are looking to reap the fruits of their collective labor by 2020. As with other automakers, the high cost of producing fuel-cell vehicles is the fly in the ointment of a powertrain technology that combines the same range as gas-powered vehicles but with zero emissions. In the meantime, Honda, which makes the very limited production FCX Clarity fuel-cell vehicle, is slated to start selling its own mass-market fuel-cell vehicle in 2015. The two automakers made their partnership announcement last summer and said they contribute to expanding hydrogen fuel infrastructure in California during the next few years. Earlier, Ford, Mercedes-Benz parent Daimler and Nissan also said they would work together to speed up fuel-cell technology development.

Automakers score 8 out of top 20 most-watched ads on YouTube [w/videos]

Who would have ever thought there'd be a day where people are able to skip television commercials only to go to websites to watch them later? Such is the joy of a DVR and YouTube. AdWeek tabulated the 20 most-watched ads on YouTube, and found that nine were car-related including eight coming from automakers.
Volkswagen continued its Star Wars theme with two ads in the top 20, including the highest-ranking car commercial The Bark Side spot at number three with almost 18 million views, which doesn't even have a single car in it. Some of our favorites are from Chrysler with Clint Eastwood in It's Halftime in America and House Arrest with Charlie Sheen for the Fiat 500 Abarth. Chevrolet, Honda, Audi and Toyota were the other automakers in the top 20, but we'd be remiss if we didn't at least mention one of the coolest ads on the list, the Hot Wheels corkscrew jump.
Of all the car videos, only the Fiat ad wasn't played during a Super Bowl. Check out all eight videos - in order - after the jump. Nike took the top spot with its My Time is Now ad that has been seen online more than 20 million times with Pepsi's Uncle Drew posted up in the runner-up; some of the other videos include four Old Spice commercials and an ad in which Snoop Dogg is pedaling Hot Pockets.

Total auto recalls already on record pace in 2014

If you've noticed that there have been more recalls than usual this year, you may be on to something. According to a report from the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration, the US market is on pace to break a record for recalls. In 2013, 22 million cars were recalled. We're only a third of the way through 2014, though, and we've already halved that figure, with 11 million units recalled. That's wild.
Considering the past few months, it shouldn't be a surprise that General Motors is leading the charge, with six million of the 11 million units recalled coming from one of the General's four brands. Between truck recalls, CUV recalls and the ignition switch recall, 2014 hasn't been a great year for GM.
Other recall leaders include Nissan (one million Sentra and Altima sedans), Honda (900,000 Odyssey minivans), Toyota (over one million units in a few recalls), Volkswagen (150,000 Passat sedans), Chrysler (644,000 Dodge Durango and Jeep Grand Cherokee SUVs) and most recently, Ford (434,000 units, the bulk of which were early Ford Escape CUVs). So while it's been a bad year for GM so far, its competitors aren't doing too well, either.