Hyundai begins limited production of ix35 Fuel Cell vehicle for fleet use; 1,000 planned by 2015
26 February 2013
Hyundai has begun assembly-line production of the ix35 Fuel Cell vehicle for fleet use; the first ix35 FCV rolled off the line at its Ulsan manufacturing facility today. (Earlier post.) The vehicle will be displayed at the 2013 Geneva Motor Show.
That ix35 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 Fuel Cell vehicles for fleet use, according to an agreement announced in September 2012. Two ix35 Fuel Cell vehicles will be supplied to Skåne, Sweden.
Hyundai plans to build 1,000 ix35 Fuel Cell vehicles by 2015 for lease to public and private fleets, primarily in Europe, where the European Union has established a hydrogen road map and initiated construction of hydrogen fueling stations.
The strategy of leading automakers in Europe and the US 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.
After 2015, with lowered vehicle production costs and further developed hydrogen infrastructure, Hyundai will begin manufacturing hydrogen fuel cell vehicles for consumer retail sales.
The ix35 Fuel Cell can be refueled with hydrogen in only a few minutes. It accelerates from zero to 100 km/h in 12.5 seconds, has a top speed of 160 km/h (99 mph) and can travel 594 kilometers (369 miles) on a full tank.
The 11th year of "the Hydrogen Initiative" and a Korean shall lead them..
Where's those $billions in decades of US taxpayer fuel cell development grants(and interest)?
Perhaps the fuel cell $billions will be refunded to US taxpayers, maybe kickbacks will get from Texas to DC as well.. but don't hold your breath.
Posted by: kelly | 26 February 2013 at 12:46 PM
Pretty much bang on the schedule that they have envisaged for the last couple of years, when opponents were going on that there would be endless postponements.
Its a shame that the same can't be said for the greatly enhanced performance of batteries predicted over the same time scale in general production cars, with the honourable exception of the Tesla.
Posted by: Davemart | 26 February 2013 at 02:48 PM
Kelly of those billions very little was spent on CARS most of it was on pipeline and tanker truck tech. There are alot of fuel cells being made right now but all of them are going into various telicom cell tower units and backup powerplants at hospitals and various other far more profitable and short term viable markets.
Posted by: wintermane2000 | 26 February 2013 at 03:13 PM
A corporation that makes over 3,000,000 vehicles a year, with ~300+ fuel cell vehicles(~.001%) a year projected, hidden in fleets, and with a price too embarrassing to announce.
Considering the consistent fuel cell vehicle forty(40) year track record and non-existent hydrogen infrastructure, "Pretty much bang on the schedule.." covers it..
.. except for the fuel cell $billions due to be returned to US taxpayers.
Posted by: kelly | 26 February 2013 at 04:24 PM
I really couldn't give a damn about the US taxpayer and what they have been spending their spare change on which they are not using to invade various oil rich countries.
The US is also far from the only country to see that hydrogen is going to be important for transport, the notion that it is not is pretty much confined to obsessives on blogs, or to have put money into it.
Funnily enough new technology requires some new infrastructure, it does not come ready made.
Presumably travel by aeroplane would be deemed impossible as airports would have to be constructed.
Presumably also plugs for battery only vehicles will magically appear by the roadside to run the around half of cars which are not garaged.
Its marvellous how people who could put the DOE, Hyundai, Toyota, Daimler and just about every other motor manufacturer on earth straight on the one, the only way to provide future transport find time to write on blogs.
They have worked everything out on the back of an envelope somewhere and could put those guys straight, and tell them not to bother with fuel cells.
Posted by: Davemart | 26 February 2013 at 06:16 PM
limited production of fuel cells...what's for. GM, Mercedes, Honda, Toyota already tried...same causes produce same effects, right?, no network of distribution for H2 so no market for fuel cell, end of the story.
Posted by: Treehugger | 26 February 2013 at 08:23 PM
Wrong treehugger. Up until a few years ago all the car makers were using first or second generation construction facilities to produce thier fuel cell cars and the stacks. A few years back many car makers started building the next generation of those facilties.. a much larger scale plant. These plants are comming online and the costs are fairly much already paid for.. so construction of 250-500-1000 even 10-30k units is already paid for and will happen no matter what.
Posted by: wintermane2000 | 26 February 2013 at 10:56 PM
I DO care about the US taxpayer, because I was forced to be one and am owed tens of thousands of dollars from my paid-in social security, veteran, etc. dollars returned - WITH INTEREST.
My point is that fuel cells have been clearly used to defraud US taxpayers. By the 1970's, NASA/science had spent the R&D $millions and we knew fuel cell costs and limitations.
Auto makers knew to the penny what 'fuel cell grants' they were stealing and there are little hints:
NEVER one fuel cell vehicle was marketed and sold.
Repeat the above each of forty auto model years.
Like the Honda Clarity and now Hyundai, only non-US tax dollar/foreign auto makers manufactured ANY fuel cell vehicles maybe on the road AND NO ONE has sold one.
Obvious US corporate thieves should be fined, imprisoned, and US "FC auto grant" funds returned.
If new materials make fuel cell vehicles economically possible, fine - but until they are sold on the public market - they are part of a known ongoing fraud.
Even the "impossible" full/hybrid EV has sold IN THE MILLIONS OF UNITS, often while only sold or serviced in a half dozen states.
If you question the forty-year-fraud, leave the house and try buying a FC car or even a can of FC fuel.
Posted by: kelly | 27 February 2013 at 06:41 AM
Mercedes said they would have a fuel cell that would cost the same as an engine by 2015. This could be a 2k fuel cell versus a V12 race engine, but that was the statement.
Posted by: SJC | 27 February 2013 at 10:06 AM
Well remember sjc the super duper v12 engines in those cars cost ALOT of money. 50k maybe more so its not that hard to make a powerful fuel cell stack by 2015 that meets that price point.
Posted by: wintermane2000 | 27 February 2013 at 10:34 AM