G.M.’s Fuel-Cell Car Makes a Statement

Automakers usually try to improve their products by adding to them. General Motors is using the Consumer Electronics Show to promote prototype vehicles that are missing things other vehicles have.

Today G.M. is introducing a zero-emission Cadillac crossover vehicle concept, called the Provoq, that runs on hydrogen fuel cells and batteries rather than gasoline. The Provoq has a 300-mile range and uses a fuel-cell stack that is half the size of those in concepts that G.M. has shown previously, yet much more efficient.

G.M. hopes to begin selling such a fuel-cell vehicle about three or four years, said the general manager of Cadillac, Jim Taylor. The first ones are likely to be luxury vehicles because of this technology, he said, noting that a vehicle such as the Provoq is currently “a long way” from being affordable even to affluent car shoppers.

“There’s a lot of science that has to get solved between now and then,” Mr. Taylor said.

G.M.’s chief executive, Rick Wagoner, is introducing the Provoq during his keynote speech today, along with a modified Chevrolet Tahoe that can maneuver itself without a driver.

This is the first time that G.M. has had such a prominent presence at C.E.S., and on the first day of the show, the effort seemed to be paying off. G.M.’s space in an out-of-the-way parking lot attracted crews from all four major broadcast networks, along with CNN, Telemundo and German and Dutch networks.

The car makes for intriguing video as it carried passengers through a path of orange cones with no one behind the wheel, halting at a four-way stop sign before either proceeding or waiting its turn, depending on whether a human-driven Hummer arrived at the intersection first. The steering and acceleration is rather jerky, although the shuttle-bus ride to the convention center is no more pleasant.

Both the self-driving vehicle, which is nicknamed “Boss,” and the Provoq are designed to drum up positive publicity for G.M., but they also show how drastically G.M. thinks vehicles will have to change to comply with newly enacted federal fuel-economy regulations by a 2020 deadline. The Provoq uses no gasoline, and the hope is that self-driving vehicles would use less fuel by operating more efficiently and reducing traffic congestion.