Hyundai is now stepping up its activities in the fuel cell race with plans of building an SUV that can go 348 miles on a full tank of hydrogen. That’s a little short of the Honda Clarity, which does 366 miles on a single top up, but better than the Toyota Mirai with its 312 mile range.
As alternative automobile fuels go, the fuel cell isn’t as popular as battery cells. But they’re far cleaner in terms of power production, and the technology is advanced enough now for companies like Mercedes-Benz to start looking at viable alternatives for traditional internal combustion engines.
For Hyundai, this will be their second generation of fuel cell vehicles, the first being the Hyundai Tucson Fuel Cell SUV originally launched in 2014. That was tagged as being expensive, but we’re assuming that Hyundai engineers now hope that a longer range will justify a premium on the vehicle’s price tag.
Expected to come with a $50,000 price tag, the second generation Hyundai Tucson Fuel Cell SUV is still more expensive than GM’s Chevy Bolt or Tesla’s Model 3, but being an SUV it does have that going for it. In comparison, Tesla’s own SUV, the Model X, is far more expensive. And with rebates for clear energy, the new Tucson Fuel Cell SUVs could end up being a very compelling proposition.
The crossover SUV will also come after Hyundai introduces a fuel cell bus, around which time Toyota is also expected to launch one of its own. That will happen sometime in 2017, according to the Nikkei report that revealed Hyundai’s plans. Following that, the second generation Tucson Fuel Cell will launch in January 2018.
Hyundai’s Fuel Cell Electric Vehicle (FCEV) line up for 2017 should put it in line with Japanese makers like Toyota. That’s also going to be a significant milestone for the South Korean company that is home to other international players like Samsung and LG.
The original FCEV from Hyundai – the ix35 – had an 80 kW electric motor, a 152V battery co-developed with expertise from LG Chem, and a hydrogen tank capacity of about 152 liters (approx. 40 U.S. Gallons), which gives it a total range of 186.4 miles, or 300 kilometers. The ix35 is also the world’s first mass-produced Fuel Cell Electric Vehicle. This was a test vehicle for the model that’s coming out in 2018, which will have 30% better fuel efficiency than its predecessor and nearly double the total range.
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Source: Nikkei via PerfScience
