The first 15 production units of Hyundai ix35 Fuel Cell cars were delivered to the city of Copenhagen, during the opening ceremony of Denmark’s first hydrogen refuelling station. The cars will be used in municipal fleet, supporting city’s ‘carbon-neutral’ aim. Fuel Cell cars are not yet fully ready for civilian use.

The ix35 FCEV run it very close, though. Hyundai has been testing this car in Europe since 2011. Besides working on the technical aspect, Hyundai’s program had other goals, promoting establishing a pan-European refueling infrastructure; and demonstrating the cars’ real-world practicality to public and private organizations. Hyundai takes great pride in being the first car maker to produce FCEV on the same assembly lines as normal models.

For those who may not be familiar with the concept of fuel cell vehicles, the powertrain in these cars is basically an onboard power generator that feed an electric motor, which drives the car. The fuel cell needs Hydrogen to run, which is the main hurdle in its way, as there is no infrastructure for H2 fuel stations anywhere in the world. The real upside of the system is that the only tailpipe emission is H2O, which is water.

The progress is slow, but many countries have taken the first steps to put in place a nation-wide hydrogen station network. If they manage to pull that off in time, FCEVs will make the electric cars obsolete, as refueling a hydrogen-powered car take a few minutes, like a petrol-powered car, while recharging an EV, using fast-chargers and stuff, takes at least 30-40 minutes.

The ix35 FCEV has a 100 kW (136 ps) output which gives it a top speed of 160 km/h. Two hydrogen storage tanks, located between the vehicle’s rear axle, with a total capacity of 5,64 kg, enable the vehicle to travel a total of 594 km on a single fuelling.