Hyundai Motor to hand over 60 additional Hyundai ix35 Fuel Cell cars to Paris-based electric taxi start-up
11 November 2016
Hyundai Motor will hand over 60 ix35 Fuel Cell cars to the Paris-based electric taxi start-up STEP (Société du Taxi Electrique Parisien). A memorandum of understanding to that effect was signed at the opening of a public hydrogen fuel station operated by Air Liquide at Hyundai Motor’s European headquarters in Offenbach, Germany.
STEP currently serves the Greater Paris Area with five ix35 Fuel Cell cars that Hyundai Motor delivered in December 2015. The fleet is planned to increase up to several hundred vehicles within five years.
The 60 new ix35 Fuel Cell vehicles will not add to the 17,000 taxis already in circulation in and around Paris; they replacing gasoline and diesel-powered cars.
Currently there are more than 300 Hyundai ix35 Fuel Cell cars on European roads in 12 countries—more than all the FCEVs of other manufacturers combined.The ix35 Fuel Cell’s range is up to 594 kilometers (369 miles) on a full tank.
The ix35 Fuel Cell deployed are partially funded by the Hydrogen Mobility Europe Project. Hydrogen Mobility Europe is funded by the Fuel Cells and Hydrogen Joint Undertaking (FCH JU), a public private partnership supporting research, technological development and demonstration activities in fuel cell and hydrogen energy technologies in Europe.
Large city taxis are excellent locations to operate extended range (360+ miles) FCEVs. Where H2 is made with clean REs, FCEVs can be very useful to clean the air in polluted city cores.
That being the case, FCEVs should replace the mainly diesel taxis in Paris, London, Peking, Tokyo, Mexico City, and many (100+) other large cities.
Toyota and Honda should join Hyundai with their excellent FCEVs in that worthwhile effort.
Posted by: HarveyD | 11 November 2016 at 10:49 AM
I'd love to see ZEVs replace ICE taxies in cities, and that is one application where the lack of H2 infrastructure can be more easily remedied. But you have to ask yourself, if there is a viable business case to be made for FCVs as taxis, why is Hyundai giving them away? Fleet managers must not be too keen on the value proposition.
I imagine that lack of a competitive parts and repair infrastructure may be one concern.
Posted by: electric-car-insider.com | 12 November 2016 at 10:40 AM
Toyota also resorted to nearly give away their FCV Mirai as no one will buy them at 60k USD. They can now be leased for 350 USD per month. Still have trouble even finding 50 people per month to sign up. http://www.autoblog.com/2016/09/21/toyota-mirai-lease-rate-dropped-349-month/
Posted by: Account Deleted | 13 November 2016 at 03:06 AM
With new stuffs, you sometimes have to give 'em away to get people to get hooked to 'em. And get hooked, they will.
Posted by: Roger Pham | 13 November 2016 at 10:24 AM
RP> sometimes have to give 'em away to get people to get hooked...
Hmm, that's generally not a positive metaphor. It references street sales of heroin. Maybe that's why people are so leery of H2 FCVs.
Interesting that Tesla and Chevrolet don't feel the need to do that with their cars, yet sell 3,000%.
Posted by: electric-car-insider.com | 14 November 2016 at 03:51 AM
Autocar reported today harsh comments on H2 for cars by Jaguar Land Rover technical design director:
Jaguar Land Rover’s technical design director Wolfgang Ziebart has dismissed hydrogen powered fuel cell vehicles as a “complete nonsense”.
Ziebart, who was appointed by JLR boss Ralf Speth in 2013 to orchestrate the development of the company’s I-Pace battery electric vehicle, said hydrogen did not make sense as a fuel for electric vehicles due to its inherent poor efficiency.
“The well to wheel relationship from the energy source to the vehicle is a disaster,” he said.
The process of producing the hydrogen and then compressing and cooling it for use in a fuel cell vehicle uses a great deal of energy. “You end up with a well to wheel efficiency of roughly 30% for hydrogen, as opposed to more or less well to wheel 70% efficiency for a battery electric vehicle,” explained Ziebart. “So the efficiency of putting the electric energy directly into a battery is about twice as high as the efficiency of producing and using hydrogen
Posted by: electric-car-insider.com | 16 November 2016 at 08:15 AM