Hyundai Motor will hand over 60 ix35 Fuel Cell SUVs to the Paris-based electric taxi start-up STEP (Société du Taxi Electrique Parisien).
A memorandum of understanding to that effect was signed at the opening of a public hydrogen fuel station operated by Air Liquide at Hyundai Motor’s European headquarters in Offenbach, Germany.
The world’s largest fuel cell taxi fleet “hype” (Hydrogen Powered Electric) currently serves the Greater Paris Area with five ix35 Fuel Cell SUVs that Hyundai Motor delivered in December 2015. The fleet is planned to increase up to several hundred vehicles within five years.
The 60 new ix35 Fuel Cell vehicles will not add to the 17,000 taxis already in circulation in and around Paris. They are replacing petrol and diesel-powered cars. Compared to a diesel-powered taxi with CO2 emissions of 135 gram per kilometer and an annual mileage of 100,000 kilometers, the ix35 Fuel Cell vehicles will save more than 800 tonnes of CO2 per year in exhaust emissions. That is the equivalent of one person taking the plane and flying more than 200 times from Frankfurt to New York and back. In contrast to this, the only emissions from the tailpipe of the ix35 Fuel Cell during driving are water vapour.
Currently there are more than 300 Hyundai ix35 Fuel Cell cars on European roads in 12 countries—more than all the FCEVs of other manufacturers combined. The ix35 Fuel Cell’s range is up to 594 kilometers (369 miles) on a full tank.
The ix35 Fuel Cell deployed are partially funded by the Hydrogen Mobility Europe Project. Hydrogen Mobility Europe is funded by the Fuel Cells and Hydrogen Joint Undertaking (FCH JU), a public private partnership supporting research, technological development and demonstration activities in fuel cell and hydrogen energy technologies in Europe.
