In a race to determine the ultimate renewable fuel source for vehicles, there's no doubt the smart money is on electricity. But that doesn't mean proponents of hydrogen fuel cell power are about to roll over and play dead. The latest case in point is Hyundai, which announced Thursday that it plans to make its hydrogen cell-powered NEXO SUV available at more dealer showrooms.
Only In California?
But here's the rub. The corporate release indicated that the NEXO's distribution has been expanded to include a Hyundai dealership near Sacramento, joining three others in California. Forget looking for it anywhere else in the U.S. or for that matter, any other region on the very planet this SUV was designed to help rescue from climate change.
Hyundai hasn't been the only automaker bent on selling hydrogen fuel-cell units. Ford and GM have been playing around with a few concepts of late. In 2019, Toyota introduced the hydrogen-powered Murai. Not to be outdone, BMW has been going whole-hog on hydrogen technology, which the company plans to make available on such models as its X5 and X7 SUVs and its HDC-6 Neptune truck.
Electricity An Easier Sell
But the reality is that despite the zero-emissions promised by the NEXO, hydrogen is a hard sell compared to electricity. Blame it on the explosion of the Hindenburg airship in 1937, a negative-safety stigma that still plagues the likes of Universal Hydrogen, which plans to use the element to power more modern aircraft.
Or credit the likes of all-electric automaker Tesla — by far the world's top manufacturer of totally-green vehicles — for publicly denouncing hydrogen as an inefficient alternative energy source.
Advantages Of Hydrogen Power
But on closer inspection, hydrogen fuel cells have a lot going for them as a superior rival to electricity. For openers, extraction — which involves either electrolysis (or water splitting) or natural gas — is less harmful to the environment than relying on fossil-fueled power plants to supply the energy for electric car batteries.
Refuelling is much faster as well. In the case of hydrogen, it's simply a process of refilling the tank, while recharging stations for electric cars take considerably longer. Hydrogen is also further ahead in terms of range; a car with H2 can outdistance its electric equivalent by as much as 50 per cent.
“With quick refuelling times, impressive driving range and zero emissions, Hyundai NEXO represents the future of sustainable driving solutions," said Randy Parker, Hyundai's vice president of national sales. But if the likes of Hyundai want to reap the dividends of hydrogen power, they'll have to do it by getting more than one dealership at a time to sell the NEXO.
Source: Hyundai