Earlier this week when Hyundai America product development VP John Krafcik revealed that the company would unveil a hybrid version of the Sonata at the LA Auto Show, some of the PR people in the room seemed to be caught by surprise. Now the Chairman of the Hyundai-Kia Auto group, Mong-Koo Chung has confirmed that and more. Over on the Kia Buzz blog, the chairman has affirmed production of a hybrid version of the Elantra in Korea in 2009 followed by a mid-size hybrid (namely the Sonata) in 2010. Mong seems to think that more environmentally-friendly cars actually make business sense judging from this comment "low-carbon, environmentally friendly cars represent a high value-added industry of the future that will promote sustainable growth." The ability to offer more efficient, less polluting vehicles are expected to actually be a selling point as fuel prices and environmental concerns increase.

Going beyond the hybrids, Hyundai and Kia intend to continue pushing forward with fuel cell technology as well. The group wants to commercialize hydrogen vehicles beyond the 66 vehicles they have running in the field today. The company plans to expand the field test fleet to 500 vehicles by 2010 and begin series production in 2012. Mong hasn't indicated where the company plans to sell these vehicles and how customers will get fuel.

[Source: Kia Buzz]

Until fairly recently, Nissan has been mostly quiet about its fuel cell development program. The Japanese brand recently became the first to run a fuel cell vehicle around the Nurburgring in Germany when its X-Trail FCV took to the circuit more typically populated by GT-Rs, Corvettes and Porsches. Now it looks like Nissan might follow the lead of Tesla with its first production fuel cell vehicle. Izuho Hirano, Nissan's fuel cell laboratory manager has told AutoCar that a sports car or luxury car would likely be the best place to introduce the technology. Using the same rationale as Tesla and Honda with the FCX Clarity, expensive new technology like lithium batteries and fuel cells would be accepted better in a more expensive car because other premium features could be packaged with it. A fuel cell car must have something to justify the price besides the powertrain. Nissan will make a decision in early 2009 about whether to proceed with a production fuel cell car for launch in 2014.

[Source: AutoCar]

One of the lucky participants who got to drive one of GM's Fuel Cell Equinoxes as part of Project Driveway ,Matt Mackey, blogs about his experience at the wheel of the vehicle. He's not the first one to do so, but as with the other fuel-cell blogger, he comes back greatly impressed. He considers this car the future of the automobile and what a revolution it was, since he believes that the fuel will be made at home with solar cells and tap water. Mackey also explains how the 3-month test was not a technical experience for him but rather about how it is a necessary step to educate people in what a fuel-cell is, and what's the role of hydrogen is in our future energy needs.

[Source. GMnext]

Here in the Ann Arbor office of ABG we don't have access to a public hydrogen filling station yet. The only ones around here at the EPA national testing lab, the NextEnergy Center in Detroit and at various automakers facilities. That means that we're not eligible to get one of GM's Project Driveway fuel cell Equinoxes. We've driven it (full disclosure: In my previous life working as an engineer I was involved in developing the brake system on the FC Equinox so I've spent plenty of time in them) on public streets for a short jaunt around Las Vegas during this year's CES. With a home base in Los Angeles, the team at Motor Trend was found to be eligible and has been given one of the Equinoxes to drive for a few weeks. MT Editor Angus MacKenzie gives his first impressions over on their blog and not surprisingly finds it to be pretty unexceptional to drive. That's not a slam by any means, but more a statement of the fact that the Equinox basically just works. Aside from some compressor whine and some occasional clicks of opening and closing valves in the fuel system, It drives like a conventional Equinox but with a better low end torque thanks to the electric drive. MacKenzie's biggest complaint? Make a car of the future look more futuristic (take a hint from Honda's FCX Clarity here).

[Source: Motor Trend]

Click above for more pics of Ms. Curtis getting Clarity

Following Ron Yerxa and Annette Ballester's delivery of the first Honda FCX Clarity fuel cell car, Jamie Lee Curtis and her husband, Christopher Guest, have become the second couple in Southern California to receive their new wheels from Honda. So, what does Curtis think of her newfound Clarity? "I really wasn't expecting it to be so luxurious," said Curtis. "It's luxurious, luxurious, luxurious! I love the interior layout, design and access to controls. It is user-friendly and very modern."

While the case for hydrogen as fuel is a topic full of debate, it would be hard to argue that Honda's most recent fuel cell sedan isn't world's better than its first. Styling wise, for sure, the new Clarity is a huge step forward, as is the electricity-generating fuel cell stack. If you want one, don't get your hopes up. The vehicles are only being leased in Southern Cal and Japan, and there won't be many of them available. The official press release is after the break.


[Source: Honda]

Click above for a hi-res gallery of the X-Trail FCV on the Nürburgring

What's this? A Nissan-at-the-Nürburgring story that doesn't involve the mighty GT-R? Well, knock us over with a feather. We're accustomed by now of hearing about the GT-R's Nordschleife heroics, so when we saw a Nissan release touting a time of 11 minutes, 58 seconds, we thought, "Huh?" Then we saw that the vehicle recording the time was none other than the new X-Trail FCV. The 11:58 run is a record for a fuel cell vehicle on the graffitti-strewn Green Hell. Of course, it's also the only time a FCV has tackled the legendary circuit, so let's not go all crazy with the champagne just yet. Driver Frank Eickholt says that if the track had been dry, he likely would have recorded a substantially faster time -- perhaps by as much as 40 seconds. In any case, Honda, you now have a target to beat with your FCX Clarity. And GM, you're out on the 'Ring enough as is -- get Heinricy into a Fuel Cell Equinox and see what he can wring out of it. After all, it's not a real record until there's a little competition!


[Source: Nissan]

Click to enlarge

Nissan is showing off its latest hydrogen fuel cell prototype in London this week. The Japanese company has brought the X-Trail FCV to London's Imperial College. The X-Trail uses a 90 kW fuel cell stack with hydrogen compressed to 10,000 psi to achieve a range of over 300 miles. Nissan has developed its own fuel cell stack in house and mounted it under the front seats. The hydrogen storage tank sits below the second row seat while a lithium ion battery sits below the rear cargo floor. As in hybrid vehicles the battery is used to recapture kinetic energy during braking then feed it back for bursts of acceleration. Nissan expects to have fuel cell vehicles available for sale around 2015 although that depends on reducing the cost dramatically.


[Source: The Evening Standard]

Click image to enlarge

The new Subaru Stella plug-in isn't the only Japanese green car making its debut next month at the G8 conference in Hokkaido. Suzuki's in the game as well with a new hydrogen fuel cell version of its SX4 crossover, the SX4-FCV. Fitted with a fuel cell supplied by GM, and a 70 MPa (10,000 psi) storage tank for the H₂, the SX4-FCV has a maximum operating range of 250 kilometers and a top speed of 120 km/h (around 75 mph). Power output from the fuel cell is rated at 80 kW, while the motor delivers 68 kW. Road testing has been approved by Japan's Ministry of Land, Infrastructure, and transport, and will commence soon.

[Source: Suzuki]

By the middle of the next decade Mercedes-Benz wants its entire lineup to be able to operate entirely free of petroleum. The German giant is working on a variety of technologies that will help provide crude oil free transport such as battery electrics, fuel cells and highly efficient internal combustion engines that can operate on biofuels. Mercedes has recently been letting European journalists sample some of these new powertrains at a test facility in Spain.

The F700 concept that debuted last fall in Frankfurt is powered by a turbocharged DiesOtto engine. The DiesOtto is Mercedes' branding for a combined HCCI and spark ignition engine that provides nearly the same efficiency as a diesel without the need for the expensive after-treatment systems. This and conventional diesel engines can run on biofuels and Mercedes hopes to launch the DiesOtto in production by 2010. Mercedes is also currently field testing electrically-driven vehicles with both batteries alone and fuel cells each of which they also plan to launch at the beginning of the decade. While it may well be that all Mercedes models in 2015 will be capable of running petroleum free, the reality is that many - if not most - will still be using fossil fuels much of the time. That may come in the form of coal for electricity, natural gas reformed into hydrogen, or petroleum fuels blended with biofuels. But you have to start somewhere.

[Source: The Sun]

Honda has officially kicked off production of the FCX Clarity fuel cell car in Tochigi, Japan. As the first cars began to roll down the line today some of the first customers were on hand to receive ceremonial keys to the cars that they will start receiving next month. Car number 1 will go to film producer Ron Yerxa sometime in July. Honda CEO Takeo Fukui announced the first five customers at a ceremony at the first dedicated fuel cell vehicle factory in the world. Along with Yerxa, Jon Spallino, Jim Salomon, Laura Harris, and Jamie Lee Curtis and her filmmaker husband Christopher Guest will be getting Claritys. Spallino was the first retail customer of the original FCX and, along with his wife, has been driving a fuel cell car for three years now.

During the ceremony, Power Honda Costa Mesa (Costa Mesa), Honda of Santa Monica (Santa Monica) and Scott Robinson Honda (Torrance) were named as the first part of the network of dealers providing sales and service support for the fuel cell vehicle fleet. For Spallino, the new Clarity will certainly be a huge step up from the original FCX. The new car has been designed from the ground up as a fuel cell vehicle and everything has been optimized for this application. The aluminum-framed car weighs in at only 3528lbs and the new vertical flow fuel cell stack is small enough to reside in the center tunnel of the car and provide a 270 mile range. Honda plans to deliver about 200 Claritys to U.S. and Japanese customers in the next couple of years.

Related:

• First Drive: 2009 Honda FCX Clarity, world's first series production fuel cell car
• First Drive: 2009 Honda FCX Clarity on the road
• AutoblogGreen Q&A: Honda's Stephen Ellis talks about hydrogen, Part 1
• AutoblogGreen Q&A: Honda's Stephen Ellis on hydrogen, Part 2

[Source: Honda]

General Motors is announcing a new partnership today with Clean Energy to install a hydrogen filling station near Los Angeles International Airport. Clean Energy is a California-based company that currently operates 170 compressed natural gas filling stations around the country and the new LAX hydrogen station will be on the same site with a CNG station. The new LAX station to be operated by Clean Energy will be available to participants in GM's Project Driveway fuel cell field test program. According to Dan O'Connel, GM's Director of Fuel Cell Commercialization, the primary user of the facility will likely be Virgin Atlantic. The airline is taking six of the fuel cell Equinoxes (up from three) that are being used for Project Driveway to use for shuttling first class passengers to and from the airport. Beyond this first station, Clean Energy is looking at adding additional stations at other locations as well as examining the feasibility of on-site reforming of natural gas to produce hydrogen.

General Motors has now built 85 of the planned 100+ Equinoxes for the program and will have delivered 40 of them to customers within the next two weeks. Customers are apparently very pleased with the performance and are regularly topping the 160mile range estimate which was based on the EPA test cycle. According to O'Connell the only real complaint they've had so far besides people not wanting to give up the vehicles after three months is they want to be more visible. Many of the first batch of vehicles had little in the way of signage to distinguish them from standard Equinoxes and people want to show off the fact that they are driving bleeding edge technology.

[Sources: General Motors, HydrogenForecast]

Nobody could ever accuse Hyundai of not thinking big. The Korean carmaker has grown into the fourth largest volume import brand in the U.S. market and is now on the verge of launching into the luxury and high-performance segments. So far, aside from some concepts and relatively efficient small cars, they haven't made any big waves in the green tech area, at least in the U.S. In an interview with Britain's AutoCar print edition, CEO Dr. Kim Dong-Jin made it clear the company is targeting the big dogs like Toyota in the coming decade. Hyundai has been running test fleets of hybrids in Korea, as well as fuel cell vehicles in both Korea and the U.S. Dr. Kim claims that Hyundai's products will be more advanced than the Prius. The question is will they be more advanced than today's Prius or the third-gen model that's coming next year? Hyundai is developing a lot of technology in-house, including fuel cells, hybrids and diesels that are already offered overseas and coming to the U.S. as soon as 2010. Hybrids are due to arrive at about the same time with limited numbers of fuel cell vehicles hitting the market a year after that.

[Source: AutoCar, via Winding Road]

General Motor's Project Driveway campaign began late last year and is expected to continue on for a total of three years. A few of the participants have spoken about their experiences with the hydrogen fuel cell powered vehicles, and now one of them will be blogging on Popular Mechanics regarding his ongoing experience. Fortunately for Daniel Krach, he lives close enough to a hydrogen fueling station that the hydrogen-powered vehicle's 160 mile range should not pose a problem. He says that he was selected after a rigorous few months of questioning due to his penchant for being an early-adopter when it comes to new technology. Indeed, his family considers him a nerd. We can truly feel his pain. Considering that it has gotten him the keys to a brand new high-tech vehicle, which he didn't even need to pay for, we'd imagine that nobody's laughing at him now.

So far, his journey is just beginning, and of course, we wish Daniel the best with his new ride and we look forward to reading more about the experiences he gains as he drives the new-fangled vehicle all around.

[Source: Popular Mechanics]

Ah, those Italians and their penchant for rolling art. While the Fiat Phylla solar car concept may not yet exist in drivable form, it's asymmetrical styling sure is an attention getter. Presented a few days ago in Turin, Italy during "Uniamo le energie," this city car is designed to use solar panels and a hydrogen fuel cell to send power to each of its four wheels yet emit nothing but water and good vibes.

The project involved many different entities and agencies including the Piedmont Region, which sponsored and funded the undertaking, From Concept to Car and the Institute of Applied Art and Design, to name just a few, while the effort was directed by the Fiat Research Center. Besides its environmental goals of producing a high efficiency, recyclable vehicle powered chiefly by alternative sources of energy including solar, hydropower and biogas, the group sought to create a product that would be amenable to car-sharing programs and be inexpensive to operate. Indeed, since the Phylla is said to be capable of traveling 18 kilometers (11 miles) with just the energy it captures from the sun during the day, we think it is within reach of at least some of its goals.

Honda has just announced details of the leasing program for the new FCX Clarity fuel cell car that was unveiled at the LA Auto Show last November. The Clarity will be the first series "production" fuel cell vehicle available for lease to retail customers and the first examples will be delivered in July of this year. American Honda expects to lease about 200 Claritys during the first three years of the program. Right now, Honda is filtering through the 50,000 people that have shown interest in the lease program. The majority of those people who will be ruled ineligible because they don't live within range of a hydrogen filling station in the Los Angeles area.

The first batch of lessees will be announced on June 16 when the first Clarity rolls off the assembly line in Japan. The leases will be three year terms at $600/month which includes the insurance for the car. To qualify for a lease, potential customers will have to go through a multi step process that evaluates where they live and drive, and whether they have the financial means to pay for the car. When we talked to Honda's Stephen Ellis a few months ago, the retail price of hydrogen in the LA area was about $5/kg (equivalent to about 1 gallon of gas). The Clarity has a range of 270 miles and gets the equivalent of about 68mpg for gasoline. The full press release with all the details is after the jump.



All photos ©2007 Sam Abuelsamid / Weblogs, Inc.