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Hyundai ix35 fuel-cell review—Hyundai gets serious about a hydrogen future with its latest fuel-cell
http://www.telegraph.co.uk/motoring/carreviews/8989897/Hyundai-ix35-fuel-cell-review.html[font face=Times, Serif][font size=5]Hyundai ix35 fuel-cell review[/font]
[font size=4]Hyundai gets serious about a hydrogen future with its latest fuel-cell prototype, based on the ix35.[/font]
By Andrew English
3:09PM GMT 03 Jan 2012
[font size=3]Hyundai has been battling away at its fuel-cell project for 13 years now. In 1998 it started to develop a Santa Fe sports utility with a 75kW United Technologies Corporation (UTC) fuel cell. Robust, fast and pretty much bomb-proof, this early test vehicle was also very quiet, because its UTC proton exchange membrane fuel cell used ambient air pressure rather than a noisy compressor or turbocharger to compress air into the cell.
…
Honda already builds its epochal fuel-cell car, the FCX Clarity, which it leases to customers in Japan and California. General Motors’ "Project Driveway" came to an end this year with 115 Equinox SUV fuel-cell vehicles tested in the US and Europe. And two years ago, Daimler, Ford, General Motors, Honda, Hyundai/Kia, Renault/Nissan and Toyota signed a letter of understanding committing them to start introducing fuel cells in Europe (most likely Germany) from 2015 onwards – the fuel cell is far from dead.
…
Hyundai has already built 28 ix35s and is planning to put the vehicle into limited, 1,000 vehicles-a-year, commercial production in 2015. No prices yet, though Hyundai claims the economies of scale on 1,000 vehicles a year would reduce the cost to one sixth those of the original 1998 Santa Fe prototype, which would have cost several million pounds. Actually the first examples will be most likely leased to carefully selected customers so Hyundai can keep a close eye on them.
…
If the fuel cell is highly impressive, the rest of the vehicle needs work. Dynamically it isn’t a patch on the competition, or even its Santa Fe and Tucson predecessors. Body control is poor and you can feel the extra 660lb over the standard model, creating roll, moving the tail around over bumps and uncomfortably heaving over sleeping policemen.
…[/font][/font]
[font size=4]Hyundai gets serious about a hydrogen future with its latest fuel-cell prototype, based on the ix35.[/font]
By Andrew English
3:09PM GMT 03 Jan 2012
[font size=3]Hyundai has been battling away at its fuel-cell project for 13 years now. In 1998 it started to develop a Santa Fe sports utility with a 75kW United Technologies Corporation (UTC) fuel cell. Robust, fast and pretty much bomb-proof, this early test vehicle was also very quiet, because its UTC proton exchange membrane fuel cell used ambient air pressure rather than a noisy compressor or turbocharger to compress air into the cell.
…
Honda already builds its epochal fuel-cell car, the FCX Clarity, which it leases to customers in Japan and California. General Motors’ "Project Driveway" came to an end this year with 115 Equinox SUV fuel-cell vehicles tested in the US and Europe. And two years ago, Daimler, Ford, General Motors, Honda, Hyundai/Kia, Renault/Nissan and Toyota signed a letter of understanding committing them to start introducing fuel cells in Europe (most likely Germany) from 2015 onwards – the fuel cell is far from dead.
…
Hyundai has already built 28 ix35s and is planning to put the vehicle into limited, 1,000 vehicles-a-year, commercial production in 2015. No prices yet, though Hyundai claims the economies of scale on 1,000 vehicles a year would reduce the cost to one sixth those of the original 1998 Santa Fe prototype, which would have cost several million pounds. Actually the first examples will be most likely leased to carefully selected customers so Hyundai can keep a close eye on them.
…
If the fuel cell is highly impressive, the rest of the vehicle needs work. Dynamically it isn’t a patch on the competition, or even its Santa Fe and Tucson predecessors. Body control is poor and you can feel the extra 660lb over the standard model, creating roll, moving the tail around over bumps and uncomfortably heaving over sleeping policemen.
…[/font][/font]
