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Ken Gratton24 Jun 2011
REVIEW

Hyundai Tucson ix FCEV

Hyundai's fuel cell SUV delivers taste of the future

Hyundai Tucson ix FCEV


Quick Spin
Mabuk, South Korea


What we liked
>>> Modular fuel cell componentry
>>> Neat packaging
>>> Plans to build the car on the same production line as combustion models


Not so much
>>> Initial purchase price likely to exceed $50K
>>> No word from Aussie government about rebates
>>> Possibly the death knell for all that we love in conventional cars?


Overall rating: 3.0/5.0
Engine/Drivetrain/Chassis: 3.5/5.0
Price, Packaging and Practicality: 3.5/5.0
Safety: 3.0/5.0
Behind the wheel: 3.0/5.0
X-factor: 3.5/5.0


You may think that front-wheel drive SUVs are a blight on the credibility of the automotive industry. After all, they can't go offroad, they typically lack the safer onroad dynamics that conventional wagons can offer, and they're frequently bought - erroneously - as status symbols.


But this front-drive SUV represents the brightest hope for the future of the motor car.


In this era of peak oil and global warming, fuel cells are being promoted by car companies all over the world as the next major advance in automotive powertrain systems. We've already seen hydrogen fuel cell technology in Toyota's FCHV Advanced, Honda's FCX Clarity and the Mercedes-Benz F-Cell. All three of these vehicles are practical fuel cell vehicles here and now - albeit currently expensive to build. The only thing other than price to block their mass-market acceptance as production models is the lack of infrastructure to supply the hydrogen needed for them to operate.


There's a reason why two of these vehicles are SUVs and one other, the Mercedes, is a high-roof passenger vehicle that features some SUV design traits within a neatly packaged footprint. Simply put, SUVs are stuck with fewer space constraints than conventional cars. There's more room in and around the car to lay out the various components of the fuel cell system and the electric motor.


Earlier this week the Carsales Network enjoyed the opportunity to drive an addition to that small but important clique, the Hyundai Tucson ix FCEV. As the name indicates, the car is a variant of the Hyundai ix35 (also known as the Tucson in other markets), but with an electric drive motor, a fuel cell stack to convert hydrogen to electricity and water, plus the tanks to store the volatile gas.


Hyundai has achieved a credible result, installing the fuel cell stack and the AC synchronous electric motor together in the engine bay. There's less room under the bonnet with the high-tech drivetrain solution residing there than in the case of a conventional internal-combustion engine, but it looks neat — like the car was designed to accommodate the bulky equipment.


Considering Hyundai has been developing its own fuel cell technology since well before the 'fluidic sculpture' ix35 was even on the drawing boards, it's almost certain that the vehicle was designed with some view to accommodating the futuristic drivetrain package in mind. That's not to say that Hyundai has done nothing to reduce the overall size of its latest fuel cell device to fit within the confines of a small SUV's engine bay however.


Like Toyota's FCHV, the Hyundai has been developed around modular fuel cell technology. The fuel cell stack can be combined with two others to produce total electrical power of 300kW — sufficient to drive a heavy commercial vehicle like a bus. Hyundai has already built such a vehicle, in fact.


In contrast, we're not certain that the technology in the Honda FCX Clarity could be hived off for other applications, since the car was designed specifically for the drivetrain system and vice versa. There's an elephant stamp for the Hyundai right there — and one for SUV packaging too.


Another point where the Hyundai and the Benz F-Cell enjoy an advantage over the Honda lies in conventional body construction. Both the Hyundai and the Benz are based on pre-existing mainstream production cars that run internal-combustion engines. In theory at least, both the Benz and the Hyundai fuel cell vehicles (FCVs) could run down the same production line building petrol or diesel counterparts.


Hyundai is already considering the safety ramifications of filling up with hydrogen. Head of the company's Fuel Cell Group, Byung Ki Ahn, explained that the hydrogen tanks are wrapped in carbon-fibre and will withstand enormous heat and pressure.


Long before they could possibly explode, however, a pressure relief valve will bleed off the hydrogen in a controlled way. According to Dr Ahn, hydrogen gets a bad rap, through association with the hydrogen bomb and the explosion of the Hindenberg in 1937.


The Hyundai engineer argues strenuously that fuel cell vehicles pose no such dangers. There's no fission going on and even if the cars are hit by lightning, they aren't finished in aluminium-impregnated cloth.


The day at Hyundai's Eco-Technology Research Institute started with a clear reminder of what global climate change might hold in store. Coming from an Aussie winter, journalists found the sub-tropical rain and sticky heat literally put a dampener on the drive. Our hosts told us that this sort of weather was not unusual for South Korea, other than arriving about two weeks early.


By necessity the drive was brief and basically limited to the service roads and carparks around Hyundai's Mabuk facility. The rain beating down on the roof of the car made an accurate assessment of NVH something of a lost cause, but one would hazard a guess that the Hyundai air compressor is quieter than the Mercedes-Benz F-Cell's; the B-Class-based Benz driven just a couple of months ago during the Australian leg of an around-the-world promotional tour. Noise from the Benz's electric motor seemed to be better isolated from the cabin than was the case with the Hyundai. Both cars were quieter than the Honda FCX Clarity tested in Germany at autobahn speeds a couple of years ago.


The Honda impressed with its performance and the company was courageous enough to allow Aussie journalists the chance to drive the pre-production cars at speed and using the available power to the full extent.


What was immediately apparent from driving the Honda was the plaintive whine from its air compressor. When the driver demanded more power from the fuel cell stack in the Honda - and the Benz F-Cell to a lesser degree - the air compressor would spool up rapidly, sounding like a turbocharger with the volume set to '11'. Although we weren't offered any open-road time with the Hyundai, we did extract some flat-foot acceleration from the car and can report none of the Honda's whine manifested itself inside the Tucson ix FCEV.


Motive power is basically a function of the vehicle's 100kW AC synchronous electric motor, rather than the fuel cell stack, which provides electrical power for either storage or immediate use by the motor.


Electric motors are known for their torque, but the 100kW power output is not what you would call excessive for an SUV (even a compact one) carrying a further 200kg weight penalty over its internal-combustion counterparts.


So the Hyundai's performance characteristics are like the better types of toilet paper: soft but strong. The power available won't provide neck-snapping acceleration as the car bursts out of the blocks, but unfettered by the need for gearshifts the Tucson FCV would easily keep up with traffic in a suburban setting.


For all intents and purposes, the Hyundai, with its 21st Century drivetrain technology, seems like a more practical proposition right now than it rightly should, considering series production of Hyundai's first fuel cell vehicle is something like four years in the future.


Dr Ahn anticipates that production models will achieve a range of up to 650km -- short of the 800km Toyota is claiming for the FCHV Advanced, but with just two hydrogen tanks, not the Toyota's four. If the pay-off is a shorter range, but better overall packaging -- the Hyundai is probably ahead on points.


On that point, packaging was much like that of a conventional Tucson/ix35 and there were no loose wires or gadgets duct-taped to the dash in this pre-production vehicle. Only one thing gave the game away, and it was discovered by accident. Another journalist had selected the sequential-shift détente in error, using the standard Hyundai shift lever co-opted for the FCV application. When the driver was forced to bring the FCV to a halt, to avoid an on-coming vehicle, the FCV would not move forward again.


Finally, the driver selected the default Drive mode and the car proceeded once more. Plainly a vehicle relying on motive power from an electric motor driving through a single reduction gear doesn't need a sequential-shift facility -- there are no gears to change.


So it's safe to assume Hyundai will come up with a dedicated shift lever for production models, sans nudge control.


Other than that, it's all good. Hyundai's five-stage fuel cell plan (now in its third stage) seems to be on track and the Tucson ix FCEV provides strong evidence of the company's ability to meet stage 5 - when the company says consumers will be able to walk into a Hyundai showroom to buy a new FCV in 2015.



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Written byKen Gratton
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