Hyundai Tuscon Hydrogen Fuel Cell Vehicle (Photo : Twitter)
Hyundai has stated they are hedging their bet on hydrogen powered cars even though it is all electric vehicles (EVs) that may be the craze right now. The company has said they have earmarked $10 billion to be spent in developing eco-friendly cars over the next four years. This would include electric batteries to hydrogen fuel cell cars.
The Tesla Model S has won more awards recently than any other EV. The kind of market acceptance that the Model S has to its credit has prompted many a carmaker to think of electric propulsion as a serious alternative to hybrid vehicles. General Motors, for instance has already made it known they are in advanced stages of coming up with multiple offerings in the electric vehicle category in the near future.
Hyundai though has said it is hydrogen power that the future cars would be running on, Fox Business reported. In support of its claims, the South Korean carmaker cited several advantage that hydrogen fuel cell vehicle or HFVC enjoy over electric propulsion.
Scalability is one aspect where hydrogen has a distinct edge over electric propulsion, claims Kim Sae Hoon, general manager at Hyundai's fuel cell engineering design team. Hydrogen fuel cell can power vehicles the size of a mini car to even trucks. The same isn't applicable for electric fuel cell as the same for trucks will require a huge sized battery, which again will take quite a long time to charge, Computer World reported.
In comparison, HFCVs require just about five minutes to recharge and have an effective range of around 300 miles. Compare that to the 240 miles range that the Model S has on a full charge. Also, the Model S requires at least 20 mins to achieve 50 percent charge using Tesla superchargers.
However, Hyundai cited the high price of fuel cell vehicles together with the lack of enough refuelling station that is hindering greater uptake of these eco-friendly cars. The fourth largest car maker in the world believes it could be another decade before fuel cell cars becomes more common.
