Car and Van News, July 16, 2013
Hyundai
plans to have around 15 hydrogen fuel cell vehicles operating in London by the
end of this year, and 40 or more by the close of 2014.
Through
initiatives not only in the capital but across the country, the UK is emerging
as a champion of these long-range all-electric cars.
Hyundai
recently became the first manufacturer in the world to put a fuel cell car into
full production, with plans to build 1,000 hydrogen ix35s by 2015 and another
10,000 cars beyond.
“These are
not hand-built prototypes; they are proper series production models,” Hyundai
UK CEO Tony Whitehorn tells Headline Auto.
“We have
broken the chicken-and-egg cycle as to which should come first – the cars or
the infrastructure to support them.”
Fuel cell
vehicles (FCEV) are all-electric vehicles making their own electricity on the
move through chemical reaction between hydrogen and oxygen in a metal box known
as a fuel stack. They have roughly the same range on a tank of fuel as a
conventional petrol/diesel vehicle, but the only waste product is water vapour.
Whitehorn
likens the arrival of FCEVs to the introduction of the Fosbury Flop in high
jumping. “At the Mexico City Olympics in 1968 Dick Fosbury arrived at the bar
head first and backwards – and incidentally won the event,” he says. “Now
everybody does the Fosbury Flop. This is our Dick Fosbury moment.”
The take-up
of FCEVs in the UK is being encouraged by organisations such as the UK and
Scottish Hydrogen Fuel Cell Associations, UK H2 Mobility, the London Hydrogen
Partnership and London H2 Network Expansion.
“To
establish hydrogen fuel cells you need collaboration between the vehicle
manufacturers, the infrastructure companies and government,” says Whitehorn.
“That is happening in the UK.”
Forecasters
think there could be 10,000 FCEVs in the UK by the end of this decade, with
sales increasing by 300,000 a year to a total of 1.6 million by 2030.
The
establishment of a refuelling infrastructure is only one obstacle to the
widespread take-up of FCEVs, however. The other is cost, which is why Hyundai
will lease its initial batch of cars. Currently an FCEV would be priced at the
same level as a supercar because the fuel stack is expensive to make, but with
economies of scale this would tumble.
“Over the
next 18 months we need to look at the cost element and bring down the
percentage difference between a fuel cell vehicle and one with an internal
combustion engine,” says Whitehorn. “The important thing is that fuel cells are
within the reach of private buyers now.”
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