Hyundai is now leasing its advanced, zero-emissions fuel cell electric Tucson vehicle to Canadians. It’s the first time in Canada a fuel cell vehicle has been offered to customers. (CNW Group/Hyundai Auto Canada Corp.).
Hyundai Auto Canada Corp. announced that it will be the first automotive company to make hydrogen fuel cell electric vehicles available to the Canadian public and launched a dedicated website to find its first customer.
The Hyundai Tucson Fuel Cell Electric Vehicle (FCEV) will be available to Canadians on a 3-year lease beginning in early 2015 in the Vancouver area.
We firmly believe that Hyundai has already surpassed the tipping point in fuel cell technology development and that its ready to be driven by customers interested in pioneering a zero-emissions automotive future, said Don Romano, President and CEO of Hyundai Auto Canada Corp. Its time to move beyond simply talking about the opportunity. Hyundai was the first to mass-produce fuel cell electric vehicles and will be the first to bring them to Canadian customers. Were planting the seed for a new segment of the industry.
The Hyundai Tucson FCEV stores hydrogen gas and draws an inflow of air to the fuel cell stack. There is no combustion of hydrogen and the stack has no moving parts. The electrochemical process of combining oxygen and hydrogen in the fuel cell stack creates electricity to power the vehicles electric motor and charge an onboard battery. The only by-product of the process is pure water vapour, resulting in zero greenhouse-gas emissions.
The Tucson FCEV is based on its traditional, gasoline-powered Tucson crossover vehicle. This approach brings manufacturing costs of the vehicle down significantly and allows the company to scale production to meet demand.
The Hyundai Tucson FCEV takes less than 5 minutes to refuel and has an estimated range of 426 kilometres; both are comparable to the companys existing gasoline-powered Tucson and eliminate the range anxiety or recharge-time compromises of battery electric vehicles. The Tucson FCEV has also undergone extensive crash, fire, and leak testing. Further, cold weather has proven to have minimal effects to the Tucson FCEV driving range when compared to battery electric vehicles.
To introduce the new Tucson FCEV to the Canadian market, Canadians will have the exclusive opportunity to lease the vehicle at $599 per month over a three year term. The lease includes maintenance and unlimited hydrogen refueling. In addition, Tucson FCEV owners will enjoy an At Your Service valet program. based on the companys full-size Equus premium sedan program launched in 2010, should a Tucson FCEV require any service, a Hyundai dealer will pick up the vehicle and provide a loaner hybrid vehicle, then return it after service is complete to their home or business, at no charge.
The company is taking applications from customers exclusively through a dedicated website at www.HyundaiHydrogen.ca.
We are proud to be leading the fuel cell movement and now is the time for auto companies, governments, and citizens to join us in this initiative and push for the creation of a hydrogen infrastructure in Canada to maintain this positive momentum,” Romano adds.
Hyundai began its fuel cell research and development in the 1990s with the aim of protecting the global environment and leading the industry with environmental technology. In 2000, it successfully created a hydrogen fuel cell vehicle that performed comparably to internal combustion engines. After years of development, the Hyundai Tucson FCEV – with the companys latest-generation fuel cell stack – became the worlds first mass-produced hydrogen fuel cell vehicle in 2013.
The Hyundai Tucson FCEV is currently available to customers in a number of countries around the world, including the U.S., the U.K., Germany, France, Belgium, Italy, Austria, Netherland, Denmark, Sweden, Norway, Finland, and South Korea.
