Hyundai joins the fuel cell pioneers

Hyundai remains on track with its plans to market a fuel cell-equipped ix35 SUV three years from now. When we first drove the Tucson ix FCEV at Hyundai's Mabuk facility in South Korea, we were told at the time by the company's fuel cell specialist, Dr Byung Ki Ahn, that work was progressing full steam ahead.

"250 Hyundai engineers are dedicated solely to developing fuel cell technology," said Oliver Mann, Director of Marketing at Hyundai Australia during the launch of the new i30 earlier this week. "Already there are hundreds of patents in place. Hyundai expects to increase production of its fuel cell vehicles...

A pilot build of the vehicle has been under evaluation in Scandinavia, motoring.com.au was told by HMCA's Assistant Manager Public Relations, Stephen Howard.

"They're planning to go into production with ix35 Fuel Cell in 2015," he said. "They've already got numerous vehicles in the Scandinavian countries..."

That's in line with Dr Ahn's forecasts almost a year ago. There's apparently a Memorandum of Understanding between Hyundai and the countries conducting in-field evaluation exercises with the vehicles, which are front-driven ix35s featuring Hyundai's own fuel cell stack and associated paraphernalia in place of the conventional internal combustion engine and the rear drivetrain components.

Commercial availability in 2015 places Hyundai on equal footing with Toyota and Mercedes-Benz, both of which plan to lease fuel cell vehicles to private and public buyers that same year. Honda has immersed itself in the technology, but reportedly won't have a viable fuel cell vehicle in production before 2018.

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