– Hyundai has revealed its next generation fuel cell vehicle, the Tucson ix, which has a total range between refuelling of 403 miles, compared to 230 miles with the previous version. This means that the range is now equivalent to a gasoline vehicle.

It achieves this range by storing hydrogen at 700 bar. The previous generation, the Tucson, stored hydrogen at 350 bar.

The 700 bar fuel tank can store 5.6 kg of compressed hydrogen, compared to 3.5kg with the previous version.  The new version also has a 21 kW battery for short term energy storage, whereas the previous version had a 100 kW super capacitor.

It was first exhibited at the Fuel Cell & Hydrogen Energy 2011 event in Washington, DC on February 14-16.

The “gasoline equivalent fuel efficiency” is calculated to be more than 70 miles per gallon, a 15-percent improvement over the previous version.

The overall volume of the fuel cell system was reduced by 20 per cent by modularising the fuel cell stack, balance of plant (BOP), inverter and high voltage junction box.

Hyundai will test 50 Tucson ix FCEVs throughout 2011, with a view to making a limited supply available in 2012 and mass production in 2015.

Source: The Hydrogen Journal