From the country that helped bring us Winter Sonata, K-Pop and Oppa Gangnam Style, Hyundai’s ix35 Fuel Cell has officially rolled off their Ulsan manufacturing complex’s assembly line, making the Korean vehicle manufacturer the world’s first automaker to produce zero-emissions, hydrogen-powered vehicles – specifically for fleet use at this point in time.
Utilizing the C-segment SUV that’s better known as the Tucson in our neck of the woods, Hyundai hopes to lead the way into a “zero-emissions future” according to Hyundai Motor Vice Chairman, Eok Jo Kim to make the Tucson the “most eco-friendly vehicle in the auto industry”; proving that “hydrogen fuel cell technology in daily driving is no longer a dream.”
The ix35 (Tucson) Fuel Cell will be one of 17 destined for fleet customers in the City of Copenhagen, Denmark and Skåne, Sweden. The Municipality of Copenhagen, as part of its initiative to be carbon-free by 2025, will be supplied with 15 ix35 (Tucson) Fuel Cell vehicles for fleet use, according to an agreement that was announced in September 2012. Two ix35 (Tucson) Fuel Cell vehicles will also be supplied to Skåne, Sweden.
Currently, Hyundai has in their plans to build 1,000 ix35 (Tucson) Fuel Cell vehicles by 2015 and will leaser it to the public and private fleets, primarily targeting Europe, where the European Union has established a hydrogen road map and has initiated the construction of hydrogen fueling stations.
The strategy of leading automakers in Europe and the U.S. is to supply hydrogen fuel cell vehicles and establish refueling stations in order to prepare the market for mass production of hydrogen fuel cell vehicles and should happen some time after 2015 – once economies of scale begins to pick up and only then will Hyundai allow the ix35 (Tucson) to be enter the retail market.
Although Hyundai’s ix35 (Tucson) Fuel Cell is powered by hydrogen, the Korean manufacturer has assured that it will have the drivability and performance similar to that of the petrol ix35 variant – only this time it’ll be producing water out the exhaust pipe, rather than carbon emissions.
Refuelling the ix35 (Tucson) Fuel Cell can be done within a few minutes and is capable of dashing to the century mark in about 12.5s with a top speed of 160kmh and a range of about 594km on a single charge.
Hyundai’s achievements have been a cumulation of 14 years of research and more than several hundred million euros of investments at Hyundai’s fuel cell R&D centre in Mabuk, Korea. Furthermore, the car has already logged more than 2 million miles (roughly 3.2 million kilometres) of road tests in real-world conditions in Europe, Korea and the U.S.
The first ix35 Fuel Cell vehicle rolled off the assembly line will be displayed at the 2013 Geneva Motor Show.
http://youtu.be/rHGB8NtPBaE
