Hyundai betting on hydrogen as fuel of the future
ECO-FRIENDLY: But even after price cut, Korean automaker’s fuel cell-powered Tucson a slow seller
Hyundai says hydrogen fuel cell vehicles are the future for ecofriendly cars, despite challenges of limited infrastructure and slow sales.
South Korea’s largest automaker sold or leased about 250 of its Tucson Fuel Cell Electric Vehicles (FCEV) since production began in 2013 — lower than its 1,000 target — mostly in Europe and California.
Senior engineer Kim Sae Hoon said FCEVs represent a bigger opportunity than electric cars because competition is less fierce and there is design flexibility. The vehicles can be refuelled quickly and travel further than electric vehicles (an estimated 426 km between fill-ups), and emit no greenhouse gases.
High prices and the lack of fuelling stations are barriers the automaker faces and Hyundai says it will be another 10 years before hydrogen cars start gaining wider acceptance.
Information on Hyundai’s Canadian Tucson FCEV is available at HyundaiHydrogen.ca.
Hyundai recently slashed the FCEV Tucson’s price in South Korea to just over $77,000 from about $180,000 to help boost sales. The vehicles are only available for lease in the Vancouver area and parts of the United States.
Aston Martin, Red Bull working on supercar
Aston Martin and Red Bull Racing have reportedly teamed up to give us an “ultra-high performance” car.
Details about the project are still thin, but Britain’s Autocar says the car will be a successor to the trackready Vulcan, drawing from Aston’s partnership with Mercedes-AMG by using a handful of components and tech from the German automaker.
With Red Bull Formula One engineer Adrian Newey in charge of the project, you can most definitely bet on Aston Martin’s mystery model being aimed squarely at the likes of the LaFerrari FXX K and the McLaren P1 GTR.
Lotus promises to have ‘fastest’ SUV in class
These days, nearly every luxury automaker wants to build an SUV. British automaker Lotus is the latest (and possibly most surprising) automaker to jump on the bandwagon.
Speaking with Top Gear, CEO JeanMarc Gales recently dished more details over Lotus’ upcoming SUV. He says it will be assembled in China under an agreement with Chinese company Goldstar Heavy Industrial and promised driving characteristics that stay true to Lotus’ sports cars.
“If Colin Chapman was alive, I believe he would have done one,” Gales said.
“It will be the size of a Porsche Macan but only 1,600 kilograms, and will be the most agile and the fastest of that class on a track.”
Keeping weight down is one of the biggest challenges Lotus faces. Thankfully, Gales says the company can keep the SUV slim by using a four-cylinder engine and smaller brakes than those used on Lotus’ sports cars, as well as the Evora’s lightweight seats.
To say Lotus needs the SUV to be profitable is an understatement; the SUV will be limited to the Chinese market when it launches around 2019 or 2020 and if it sells well, Lotus will offer it in Europe as early as 2022.