Hyundai Tucson FCEV

I tend to ramble on about infrastructure quite a bit, mainly because the geographical layout of the US, primary resource generation vs utilization drives both the economic engine and the energy usage. As mentioned a few posts ago, the eventual, highest potential with current technology, next generation energy source is Hydrogen. Will Hydrogen supplant gasoline in my lifetime...I'll go with a qualified maybe, but it will be increasing in utilization, most likely doubling in usage every few years for the foreseeable future. 

One of the main reasons is the forthcoming introduction of the hydrogen car, primarily Hydrogen fuel cell car/bus/truck etc, by the major automakers. The current leader in the rush to market is Hyundai with a Fuel Cell Electric vehicle, or FCEV, based on the Tucson platform slated for limited release in 2012 through a first run production test of 1,000, in Europe. So if you live in Europe, near a Hydrogen fueling source and have an extra $44K lying around....GO FOR IT.

The Tucson has been the development platform from hyundai for the past 8-10 years and there has been extensive development and integration of the fuel cell powertrain into the existing vehicle. Hyundai is pushing this for the stated reason of beating Toyota into the field that they(Hyundai) lost out to Toyota in the hybrid market. 

So why infrastructure again? Well, above I noted Europe, and that's because there isn't a distributed Hydrogen infrastructure here in the US. In Europe(Western), because the continent is both smaller and more densley populated, there isn't a need to have a vast distribution network of H2 fueling stations for early adopters to use the vehicle. The attached map shows the existing refueling stations in Europe, meaning that there is already a network in place that allows for the owner of a FCEV vehicle to hold a relatively normal driving pattern between refueling. 

Contrast that image with the map of North America where there are both fewer stations, and those stations are more spread out, meaning any early adopters are stuck with a centralized fueling system. That centralized fueling requirement would discourage most people from adopting(like myself) since the nearest station may be upwards of 500 miles away, only 85 in  my case but still too far away for this to be a good investment. 

So as mentioned the lack of Hydrogen infrastructure, and hence the decentralized Hydrogen generation concept discussed earlier, and one I'll come back to again. 

Also though, why all the talk about FCEV's? I'll tackle that one later as I still have a passion for the technology, even though I'm not longer actively working in the field, but two words cover it...thermodynamic efficiency. Look it up if you're bored.