Hyundai goes the distance with hydrogen car
HYUNDAI Motor says its new hydrogen-fuel cell vehicle will travel more than 580km between fill-ups.
The South Korean company said yesterday its second-generation fuel cell sport utility vehicle (SUV) will be launched early next year.
If delivered as promised, Hyundai’s upcoming fuel cell vehicle will travel 40 percent further than its first-generation fuel cell SUV, the Tucson ix FCEV, launched in 2013.
Fuel cell cars, emission-free like pure electric cars, can be refuelled in two to three minutes, unlike electric vehicles that can take several hours to fully recharge.
However, the dearth of hydrogen fuelling stations is an obstacle for mass adoption.
Toyota, Honda and General Motors are also investing heavily in fuel cell technology but fuel cell cars are gaining less traction than electric vehicles, which can find charging stations more easily.
South Korea plans to increase the number of hydrogen fuelling stations from 16 this year to 100 by 2020 to sharply raise sales of fuel cell vehicles.
The country is aiming to have 10 000 fuel cell vehicles on its roads by 2020 as part of its plans to tackle air pollution, its environmental ministry said in March.
That would be a jump from just 121 fuel cell cars last year.
Hyundai Motor also plans to catch up in the eco-friendly car race with longer driving range electric vehicles.
It plans to launch an electric vehicle with a driving range of 500km after 2021.
Before next year’s northern hemisphere, it plans to release a small electric SUV with a driving range of 390km a charge.
In 2021, its luxury brand Genesis will unveil an electric vehicle model as well.
One reason that makes drivers reluctant to buy electric vehicles is a fear that they may not find a charging station in the middle of a trip.
Hyundai’s first pure electric car, the IONIQ, which launched last year, had a driving range of 191km a charge, shorter than the electric vehicles made by Tesla and GM. – AP