That will change next year when Hyundai starts selling a Tucson
SUV powered by a hydrogen fuel cell. It will be the first
mass-market vehicle of its type to be sold or leased in the U.S.
"These things are now ready for prime time," John Krafcik, Hyundai's
North American CEO, said last week. His company plans to announce
details of the new Tucson on Wednesday at the Los Angeles Auto Show.
Even as the industry focused on battery-powered and hybrid cars,
automakers such as Hyundai, Honda and Toyota kept up research on
fuel cells. Now they appear to have conquered obstacles such as high
costs, safety concerns and a lack of filling stations. These
vehicles could help the companies meet stricter future fuel-economy
standards.
Automakers have been dabbling in hydrogen-powered cars since the
1960s. General Motors announced a test fleet of hydrogen-powered
Chevy Equinoxes in the mid-2000s, and Honda leased about two-dozen
FCX Clarity models for $600 per month starting in 2005.
President George W. Bush allocated $1.2 billion for hydrogen
research and said in his 2003 State of the Union address: "The first
car driven by a child born today could be powered by hydrogen and
pollution free." But the program was largely scrapped by the Obama
administration, which focused more on battery-powered vehicles.
Hyundai now is making Bush's forecast come true, beating other auto
companies to the mass market with Tucsons that have electric motors
powered by a stack of hydrogen fuel cells. Hyundai plans to start
selling the vehicles in Southern California and eventually spread to
other areas as filling stations are built.
Hyundai says it has overcome safety and storage issues with a
rear-mounted tank that has passed numerous crash tests without
incident. As for filling stations, the California Air Resources
Board says there currently are nine open to the public in the state.
Legislators recently allocated about $100 million, or $20 million a
year, to build 100 more.
Also at the Los Angeles show, Honda Motor Co. is scheduled to show
off a fuel-cell concept vehicle, which it says hints at the
aerodynamic design of the next generation fuel-cell vehicle to be
launched in 2015. Further details weren't available.
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Toyota Motor Corp. is scheduled to unveil its own concept fuel-cell
vehicle at this week's Tokyo Motor Show. That one also is likely for
distribution in the mass market in 2015.
General Motors continues work on its fuel-cell vehicles.
The largest U.S. automaker, which has spent a lot of time and
resources on battery-powered cars such as the Chevrolet Volt, has no
fuel-cell vehicles currently in its new product pipeline, spokesman
Dan Flores said Monday. He said more work needs to be done on cost
and infrastructure to make the cars viable.
Hyundai is expected to introduce prices and details of how its cars
will be sold or leased at the Los Angeles show. Automakers usually
offer leases when they put new technology on the market.
Hydrogen cars likely will help automakers meet new goals from eight
key states to put more zero-emissions cars on the road. The states,
including California and New York, pledged late last month to work
together to put 3.3 million battery-powered cars, plug-in hybrids
and other clean-burning vehicles on the roads in those states by
2025. That's more than 15 times as many zero-emission vehicles
projected to be in use in the entire U.S. by 2015.
The other states in the pact are Massachusetts, Maryland, Oregon,
Connecticut, Rhode Island and Vermont. The eight states together
represent about 23 percent of the U.S. auto market.
[Associated
Press; TOM KRISHER, AP Auto Writer]
Copyright 2013 The Associated
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