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Car buyers with an eye for greener car models will soon have one more option to add to the growing list of environmentally-friendly cars. Riversimple Movement Ltd. recently unveiled its first road-legal hydrogen prototype road car which the company developed with the help of a £2 million grant from the Welsh government last year.
This unique car is designed to get maximum range from its hydrogen fuel while at the same time emit minimal pollution. These main adjectives were achieved by an innovative design that focused on lightness, strength, safety and affordability.
Riversimple will not offer the new hydrogen-powered car through outright sale but through the company’s unique “sale of service” model. Interested motorists may use the car for a fixed monthly fee, which the company said is comparable in cost to leasing and running a family-sized hatchback. This monthly fee will cover the car’s fuel expenses, cost of repairs, maintenance and insurance and could offer the impetus needed to launch this prototype.
At the 2016 Washington, D.C. Auto Show, Honda announced its plans to offer for US sales the new 5-passenger, hydrogen-powered Clarity Fuel Cell Sedan. The Japanese company, famous for the manufacture of automobiles, motorcycles, and power equipment, is planning to have limited volumes at the early stages of production.
Retail leasing to customers in selected California markets is scheduled to commence before the end of this year. The expected cost of the Clarity Fuel Cell is about $60,000 with a targeted lease per month of below $500. Deliveries will begin through certified fuel cell vehicle dealers in San Francisco and Sacramento including Los Angeles and Orange counties.
The company plans to begin by releasing vehicles on lease and advance to retail sales with higher volumes and market coverage, which will correspond with a greater number of vehicle supplies and the expanding hydrogen refueling station network.
Honda will be displaying two models in this year’s Los Angeles Auto Show. The first is the 2016 Civic Coupe which is part of the brand’s 10th generation and was officially launched in dealerships last November 12.
The second is its Clarity Fuel Cell sedan which is set to have its U.S. launch next year. The company expects that the Clarity Fuel Cell will give people a preview of its latest foray into low-carbon emission vehicles.
The 2016 Civic Coupe is based on the same Civic platform but it will have sportier lines compared to the previous models. With new powertrain options and a more high-tech interior, this is set to become Honda’s sportiest lineup for the Civic ever. It also boasts of having the most variety.
Daimler AG anticipates a huge drop in the costs for EV batteries and fuel cell cars. Herbert Kohler, head of e-drive and future mobility at Daimler, told Automotive News Europe that a lithium ion battery was priced at about 1,500 euros per kilowatt hour but in the midterm, it is expected to be at a level of 400 euros. Kohler said he anticipates an even bigger price drop for fuel cells.
Kohler said that by 2015, a fuel cell car will not cost higher than a four-cylinder diesel hybrid that complies with the Euro 6 emissions standard. He said that he expects EVs to be priced higher than fuel cells in less than five years. This is why Daimler is working fast to get more fuel cell cars on the road.
He said that by 2013-2014, the company seeks to bring a “four-digit-number of fuel cell vehicles to market."
As you may know already, earlier this week Mercedes-Benz introduced the A-Class E-Cell, a new electric vehicle which will be produced in a limited edition of just 500 units. As a result, Mercedes-Benz started production of this car at the Rastatt site, Germany. If you don’t know it already, we will tell you that the car is powered by an electric motor capable to deliver 70 KW (95 hp) and an impressive 290 Nm of torque.
It has a total range of more than 200 km (NEDC) or 124 miles. Comparing it to the standard version, the A-Class E-Cell received only minor adjustments such as new consoles for fixing the lithium-ion batteries. Only the assembly and commissioning of the innovative lithium-ion batteries is made at a separate station.
Integrating the A-Class E-CELL in the production phase was never a complicated exercise. During production, workers only needed to fix the lithium-ion batteries to the A-Class body using consoles. The batteries are produced at a different station, and then taken to the A-class production line.
After introducing the B-Class F-CELL fuel-cell car, Mercedes-Benz revealed today the new A-Class E-CELL, its second electric car built in series-production conditions.
The new car which will be produced in a limited run of 500 units, will be built at Rastatt from autumn 2010. As expected, it is powered by two high-efficiency lithium-ion batteries which provide a total range of over 124 miles (NEDC) or 200 km.
The batteries deliver a total output of 95 hp and a maximum torque of 290 Nm. It can accelerate from 0 to 37 mph (60 km/h) in just 5.5 seconds, while the sprint from 0 to 62 mph (100 km/h) is made in 14 seconds.
The future buses produced by Mercedes-Benz will be eco-friendly beginning with the introduction of the new Citaro FuelCELL Hybrid model, the carmaker's first ever fuel-cell hybrid bus. Another step toward a zero-emission mobility and enhanced resource conservation framework of "Shaping Future Transportation" global initiative of Daimler is the regular-service city bus.
This Citaro FuelCELL Hybrid is not something to be enjoyed in the future -- it is already here! This is the reason why Mercedes-Benz buses will be extensively monitoring its performance in regular operations within the boundaries of a major fleet test in a number of cities in Europe.
The test will be similar to the successful CUTE fleet test done by the EU between 2003 and 2006. There are a total of 36 MB Citaro buses equipped with fuel cell drives since 2003 and these have performed superbly around 12 public transport agencies on three continents as part of the CUTE test, its follow-up project the HyFLEET:CUTE and other related testing series.
Despite most carmakers' focus on bringing plug-in electric vehicles to the market, Kia continues to have its attention on the fuel cell electric vehicle. Earlier this month, Kia chose five consumers (out of 17,800 applicants) to test the fuel cell electric Mohave for six months in Seoul.
Kia's test drive program includes free hydrogen refills from any of the six charging stations located around Seoul.
A team of engineers will be constantly monitoring the vehicle and will work to correct any problems that arise with the test vehicles.
Over the next few years, we will be witnesses to the arrival of plug-in hybrids and fuel cell cars from Daimler AG's Mercedes-Benz unit in each segment.
Mercedes-Benz will be doubling its investment in green technologies in the next two years and will spend $1.4 billion in each of the next two years to develop batteries and fuel-saving engines. In the past three years, annual spending had averaged $700 million.
In an interview at the Geneva auto show, Thomas Weber, head of Daimler's r&d, said that Mercedes will put up a "flexible architecture" so that the right powertrain can be installed for each customer, whether it's a plug-in hybrid or pure electric fuel cell.
General Motors has teamed up with The Gas Company (TGC) to bring a hydrogen fueling infrastructure to Hawaii. The partnership aims to build several hydrogen fueling stations on the island of Oahu.
TGC already produces hydrogen along with synthetic natural gas, and it will be utilizing its 1,000 mile utility pipeline system to put up the fueling stations.
Charles Freese, executive director of GM Global Fuel Cell Activities, said that this collaboration is just what a hydrogen transportation infrastructure requires since both the source of the hydrogen and a viable way to deliver it for fuel cell vehicle use are addressed.
Recent automotive headline grabbers include the FCX Clarity fuel cell vehicle from Honda, the combustion-powered Hydrogen 7 and Hybrid X6 from BMW, the rotary RE line of cars as well as the RX-8 from Mazda.
Meanwhile, the Japanese giant automaker Toyota is also working on its own hydrogen fuel cell car which could hit the streets as early as 2014.
That is, the streets of California at least. Toyota's initial plan was to have a hydrogen fuel-cell car on the street by 2015, however a full year was struck out of that number to meet the incentives within California's Zero Emission Vehicle (ZEV) directive.
It was reported that BMW took the opportunity to rethink how its resources should be distributed. The carmaker supposedly then decided to reduce its hydrogen car development and to put its resources into hybrid and battery technology instead.
However, a BMW spokesman denied that the company was stopping development on hydrogen power altogether, saying that with a set number of engineers, it's "natural to transfer resources to the areas that are of most immediate concern."
He said that in the meantime, BMW will be looking to hybrid and battery technology, but in the longer-term, the carmaker will remain involved in developing hydrogen as a source of power.
Within the next two years, Hyundai-Kia will start low-volume production of at least one fuel cell model. However, Hyundai-Kia, Korea's largest automotive group, has yet to announce if this car will have a Hyundai or a Kia badge.
What's definite is that it will be a hydrogen-powered version of an existing model. And it won't be a fuel cell-only one similar to Honda's FCX Clarity.
In an interview with Autocar, Byung Ki Ahn, general manager of Hyundai-Kia's Fuel Cell Group said that agreements are in place between carmakers and legislators in Europe, North America and Japan to lead to the mass production of fuel cell cars by 2015. Improvements will be made on this model's hydrogen production capacity and refueling infrastructure.
Mercedes-Benz's first production fuel-cell vehicle, the B-class F-cell, has just been launched. A total of 200 models will be produced later this year and will be sent to customers in the United States and Europe who have leased it in early 2010.
Claimed to have the same level of performance as a 2.0-liter petrol car, the hydrogen-electric hybrid car is propelled by an electric motor that produces 134 bhp (100 kW) of peak motive and 214 lb.-ft. (290 Nm) of max torque. At its core is the new generation of the compact, high-performance fuel cell system, that allows gaseous hydrogen to react with atmospheric oxygen at 700 bar, thereby generating a current for the electric motor to use.
Its zero-emission powertrain can manage the equivalent of 86.6 mpg on the combined cycle. This is an equivalent of 3.3 liters of diesel per 100 km in the NEDC (New European Drive Cycle). The hybrid car has a range of approximately 250 miles.