Hyundai Joins Fuel-Cell Vehicle Project in Northern Europe

Electric Car News | admin | February 7, 2011 at 5:20 am

Hyundai will test a fleet of fuel-cell electric vehicles (FCEVs) in four Northern European countries.

The South Korean automaker will supply its Tucson ix FCEVs for operation in Norway, Sweden, Denmark and Iceland as a part of the Scandinavian Hydrogen Highway Partnership.

Hyundai’s third-generation FCEV is equipped with a 100-kilowatt fuel cell system and two hydrogen storage tanks (700bar).

The Tucson Fuel-Cell can travel 650 km (404 miles) on a single charge – a range equal to a gasoline-powered car. By comparison, the old ix35 FCEV only managed 370 km (230 miles). The new model gets gasoline equivalent fuel efficiency of 31 kilometers per liter, a 15-percent improvement over the previous version.

Hyundai says the Tucson ix FCEV can operate at temperatures of minus 25 degrees Celsius.

An initial agreement for the project was signed recently in Seoul by Woong-Chul Yang, President of the Hyundai Motor Group’s R&D Center, Lars Vargo, the Swedish Ambassador to South Korea, and other government and company officials.