Five Hyundai ix35 fuel cell vehicles will soon hit London’s roads as part of the London Hydrogen Network Expansion (LNHE) project. The LNHE is aiming to establish the first hydrogen transport infrastructure in the southeast of England, and is being run by a consortium of companies that specialise in different aspects of using hydrogen as a fuel.
Hyundai claims that the ix35 is the world’s first production fuel-cell car. It has committed to build 1,000 examples of the model between now and 2015, with each running down the regular ix35 production line in Ulsan, Korea.
Most of those 1,000 cars will be sent to Europe, as the European Commission has established a number of schemes, such as the Fuel Cells and Hydrogen Joint Undertaking (FCH JU), to promote the use of hydrogen as a zero carbon fuel.
According to a Hyundai statement, the ix35 fuel cell SUV has been designed to offer “the same practicality, safety levels and driving experience as an ix35 driven by an internal combustion engine.”
That means the ix35 will sprint from 0-62mph in 12.5 seconds, has a top speed of 100mph and has a range of 369 miles from each tank of hydrogen. For comparison, the ix35 1.7-litre diesel completes 0-62mph in 12.4 seconds and will hit 108mph.
The fuel cell Hyundai take around three minutes to refuel. At present, there are two hydrogen filling stations in London – one open to the public – and a third is planned as part of the LNHE.
Three more stations will be built by 2015, by which time, the LNHE project hopes to have around 50 hydrogen-powered test vehicles on the road, including buses and taxis.
Tony Whitehorn, President and CEO of Hyundai Motor UK, said: “Hydrogen delivers considerable environmental benefits and we are looking forward to working closely with the other partners to drive forward its widespread introduction.”
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I do not understand this technology and I won't pretend to know if the fuel cell electric vehicles are the way forward but I'm earnestly impressed that a relatively small car maker has taken such a costly leap of faith in the pursuit of clean energy. While so many better known and infinitely richer brands are still playing on the tardy diesel tune.
The anti-hydrogen writers on this blog work for battery makers and VC's invested in battery makers.
The oil and battery industries spend tens of millions of dollars per year on disinformation campaigns and fake pundits/shills to discredit hydrogen because it beats their products on every metric.
The waste product from hydrogen is potable water, the waste product from oil is cancer. (Oil is the root cause of cancer. ) It is worth anything to end Cancer so any arguement against hydrogen is offset by this fact alone. The waste product from batteries is Lithium poisoning and EMF caused cancer (The GM- EV1 was destroyed because of the EMF cancer risk). HOW CAN YOU SUPPORT PETROLEUM: THE ROOT CAUSE OF CANCER IN THE WORLD unless you work for an oil or battery company?
Hydrogen can now be efficiently made from water in your home or from sea-water and the competing interests can't control water so that want H2 stopped. Hydrogen can be made from sewage. Hydrogen can be made from any organic material. Making hydrogen from oil and natural gas is a wasteful and toxic thing. The oil industry will do anything to stop you from knowing this.
The more batteries you add to an electric car, the less far it goes. Hydrogen carries more energy at less weight than any battery.
Detroit has a deal with the oil companies to make money by using oil. Big oil does not want Detroit using H2. Big Oil controls the U.S. DOE and orders them to delay hydrogen.
For every negative you could get a shill to make-up about hydrogen, there are thousands of technical papers that disprove it. For every negative that you hear about oil and batteries there are hundreds of thousands of technical papers that prove it.
The gulf coast will now experience a doubling of cancer rates within 10 years, essentially killing off the deep south because of the BP Oil spill.
Hydrogen runs the sun and the sun seems to work pretty well. So Please consider this.