Hyundai's Fuel Cell: Production Ready by 2005

Automotive Industries,  July, 2001  by Alex James

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A Santa Fe SUV is already running, but will the consumer demand be there?

Hyundai Motor Co. could be ready to go into production with a fuel-cell-powered electric vehicle as early as 2005.

It's a brave, and bold, statement Company executives admit that it is far more likely to be closer to 2010, and only then if legislation demands zero emissions and consumers are willing to pay for it.

But the company does have a Santa Fe SUV running, powered by a fuel cell developed by International Fuel Cells Inc. (IFC), a subsidiary of United Technologies Corp. Dr. Hyun-Soon Lee, Hyundai's senior executive vice president of powertrain development, is enthusiastic about the speed with which the company has been able to move to having a running prototype.

Hyundai started work on fuel cells in 1998 in co-operation with the Seoul-based Korean Institute of Science and Technology. In April 2000, the automaker signed a joint development agreement with IFC.

This puts Hyundai in a unique position, according to Dr. Lee, because of the strategic alliance between the Korean automaker and DaimlerChrysler.

DC is working with Ballard Power Systems on its fuel cell development program. "We are now sharing test results with Chrysler and evaluating the two different systems," says Dr. Lee.

But there is still a long way to go, despite the breakthroughs claimed by IFC, which currently has contracts with five automakers to develop fuel cells.

The biggest problem is cost "To produce 1kW from a fuel cell costs $5,000 at the moment," explains Dr. Lee. "So to produce 100kW, or 140 hp which is about the average power for a car, would cost $500,000. It's obvious that this just isn't feasible."

The target is to get that price down to $50 to $60 per kilowatt, to make a total additional cost between $5,000 and $6,000.

But it will be a long time before customers are prepared to pay for fuel cell vehicles, says Hyoung-Keun Lee, senior vice president of international marketing.

"Customers aren't ready to pay high prices for hybrids. Governments drawing up emission legislation must consider the social cost also - there needs to be a balance between cost and emission requirements," he asserts.

When legislation will force automakers to produce zero emission vehicles and drivers to buy them is hard to predict, Lee acknowledges. "California has changed its requirements on zero and low emission vehicles already, so it's all down to government policy."

Between now and the end of 2003, Hyundai will be demonstrating two fuel cell electric vehicles {FCEVs) using hydrogen as the fuel source and four FCEVs using gasoline.

Is this the big breakthrough the industry has been waiting for? "Engineers have been expecting breakthrough technology for the last 30 years, but I do think that fuel cells now offer the biggest possibility," says Lee who joined Hyundai in 1984 to set up the company's first R & D center.

While IFC continues to develop automotive fuel cells, Hyundai is taking on the role of integrator. No IFC engineers work in South Korea.

In the Santa Fe, the cell stack assembly is installed underneath the rear seats and the hydrogen tank behind the rear axle under the luggage area. This means that there is no intrusion into usable passenger space.

A 65kW electric motor is installed conventionally under the hood. Fuel cell power is rated at 78kW.

Hyundai is claiming a top speed of 77 mph and zero-to-60 acceleration in 18 seconds. It also claims a starting time of 10 seconds, though when we drove it at Hyundai's Namyang test track, engineers told us not to turn the motor off between test runs because it would take at least 30 seconds to restart.

We drove the hydrogen fuel cell Santa Fe back-to-back with an electric-powered Santa Fe, top speed 80mph and zero to 60 in 19 seconds.

In a straight line, both perform similarly with the FCEV slightly more responsive to the throttle.

But under cornering and braking the better weight distribution means that the FCEV is far more stable and very driveable in a totally conventional way.

If this is motoring in the future, then the next generation of drivers will have little to worry about Older drivers will just have to play tapes of V-6 and V-8 engines to remind themselves of what they are missing.

COPYRIGHT 2001 Diesel & Gas Turbine Publications
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