Full of gas: 6 weeks with a hydrogen-powered car
Hydrogen offers an intriguing alternative to electric power. So what’s a fuel-cell car like to live with? We spent six weeks with a Hyundai Nexo to find out
Most car manufacturers – Toyota, Mercedes and Honda excepted – are miles from even offering their first hydrogen-fuelled production car, never mind a second. Hyundai’s first showroom fuel-cell car was a converted iX35 SUV. The Nexo travels a whole lot further – literally, in terms of range
Richard Bremner of Autocar Magazine has been running this car for six weeks to see how practical it is to live with a fuel-cell car, and to drive it to the Frankfurt motor show – a round trip of just over 1000 miles from where he lives in Hertfordshire.
That home also happens to be only 15 miles from the nearest hydrogen pump – at Beaconsfield services on the M40, a few miles from the M25. Given the Nexo’s theoretical range of more than 400 miles – way better than most EVs – living with this car is a lot more practical than it sounds given that the UK currently has only eight hydrogen stations.
That most of those eight are in the south-east is helpful – if you live in the south-east, of course – and still more helpful is that you can refuel a Nexo in under 15 minutes, a replenishment time that no battery EV can hope to compete with.
Which begs the question – why aren’t we switching to hydrogen fuel-cell cars rather than battery-electrics? That’s too complex a question to fully answer here, but part of the reason for driving the Nexo to the Frankfurt show is to interview Hyundai’s Dr Sae-Hoon Kim, who heads up its hydrogen fuel-cell business and can update us, besides testing the convenience of Western Europe’s hydrogen network.
In terms of the driving, the Nexo feels just like an EV. That’s because it is: propulsion comes from a 161bhp, 291lb ft electric motor driving the front wheels. The difference is that the amperes are supplied not by a battery but by a fuel-cell stack, supported by a fairly small battery that supplements its output during moments of heavy demand.
The combination provides a steady stream of power and decently brisk acceleration to 60mph, after which it begins to tail off. The tailing off is especially noticeable at 85mph on de-restricted autobahns, when accelerating beyond this speed is occasionally necessary if you’re not to be baulked. At this pace, the Nexo struggles to keep up with hard-charging Benzes and BMWs, but in Britain it’s entirely adequate – if nothing like a ludicrous Tesla.
The last leg to Frankfurt was the closest the Nexo came to running dry, with 37 miles left. That there were two pumps within 15 miles of our hotel made this less alarming than it sounds. But in normal use, running it much lower than 80 miles felt slightly risky – I wanted the 80 mile margin to get to the next nearest station if my nearest at Beaconsfield wasn’t working, which does happen.
Despite the challenges, the Nexo is undoubtedly a more convenient zero-emissions vehicle than a battery-electric car. Even with a worst-case 250-mile range, it goes further than most, and once you’re familiar, you’ll be filling in well under 15 minutes. As range anxiety fades, your attention will turn to the Nexo itself, which proves a pleasingly convenient SUV to use, and the car’s functionality is entirely uncompromised by its propulsion system.
None of which spoils the pleasure of driving this handsome technology-stretcher. By the end of the loan, I was beginning to think that £65,995 isn’t so unreasonable, even if it’s more than double the price of a mid-range Tucson. If you live and drive within viable distance of a couple of pumps, you’ll soon enjoy living with the Nexo as if it were any other car. But only if you live in the south-east. Once you move north of Watford, the spread of pumps is limitingly thin, and thinner than in large areas of Europe. That will slowly change but, on the basis of this experience, ought to happen a whole lot faster.
Fuel cells: the future
Why is this significant? Because hydrogen will be used to power a fleet of 50 Hyundai trucks from 2020 – and trucking, according to Hyundai fuel-cell business chief Dr Sae-Hoon Kim, should prove the irresistible economic force that turns the hydrogen economy viable.
The company is aiming to have 1600 fuel-cell trucks operating in Switzerland by 2025, all of them using hydrogen provided by renewables. Key to the project is ensuring that each of the high-investment hydrogen stations that supplies them is profitable.
But impediments to the roll-out remain, not least the high cost of transporting hydrogen any distance, which typically costs €5 (£4.20) per kilogram per kilometre (the Nexo’s tanks hold 6.3kg), and the cost of cooling it to the -40deg C needed for a fast fill. Which means to be viable, the hydrogen needs to be produced at or very close to the retail pump.
The Nexo, meanwhile, has been a hit for Hyundai. Kim notes that 6000 cars will be sold this year, and more in 2020. By 2021, production will be raised to 40,000 annually from the original 3000.
by Richard Bremner
10 November 2019
Edited Version - Read complete Autocar Magazine article here -
https://www.autocar.co.uk/car-news/features/full-gas-6-weeks-hydrogen-powered-car
Comments
10 November 2019
So at nearly 15 quid for a kilo, it's not much cheaper than petrol. let alone BEV vehicles.
10 November 2019
With the required infrastructure in place I could see how using one of these would be very similar to using a conventionally fueled car, but 63 miles/kg at nearly £15/kg, I would get closer to 120 miles, maybe a bit more, for £15 petrol, so it doesn't seem particularly cheap, maybe with the infrastructure in place and the fuel not having to be transported so far that price will reduce?Wouldn't it be better....
10 November 2019
Wouldn't it be better ...to wait until electric cars are worth talking about, before talking about them?
These pieces are repetitive and dreary.
In short, they're expensive, inconvenient, and most are finished to a pre-production standard.
10 November 2019
beechie wrote:
...to wait until electric cars are worth talking about, before talking about them?
These pieces are repetitive and dreary.
In short, they're expensive, inconvenient, and most are finished to a pre-production standard.
Agree they are expensive and inconvenient to many but most are very well finished, in fact this is stated in the Kia Hyundai reviews for their bev cars and much of the same stated in this review, they are closer to premium brands level of quality and finish according to reviews.
10 November 2019
OK, so that isn't as long as for a BEV, but it is far longer than petrol or diesel at which pumps there are already regularly queues.
And look at the huge amount of space required by the system! Instead of just sitting in a tank in the ground, hydrogen needs all that energy expensive cooling equipment.
How many hydrogen refill stations would actually be needed to make this more than a quaint story for a motoring magazine? Could it ever be a viable alternative? If anything, this story makes me think it is for lorries and not for private cats.
Elephant in the room..
10 November 2019
Yes, while it may have advantages over other propulsion systems, the asking price isn't exactly family friendly, over £66K for a modest four door saloon?, you've got to be joking...?
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