Tuesday 6 August 2013

Hyundai to open new renewable hydrogen fuelling station

Fuel cell electric car drivers in California will soon have access to a new 100% renewable hydrogen fuelling station operated by Hyundai.

It will be located at the Korean automaker’s existing hydrogen energy generation and fuelling station in Chino, which was built in 2005 to support Hyundai’s fuel cell vehicle fleet.

Hydrogen fuel cells use hydrogen to create electricity which powers the electric vehicles.

Energy used to create hydrogen will be purchased from a renewable energy provider and with the upgrade, the station is expected to produce at least 100 kilogram of hydrogen per day, enough to dispense around 6,000 to 9,000 vehicle fill-ups annually.

Hyundai claims to be the first automaker to begin commercial production of a hydrogen-powered vehicle, with its first complete car launched in February earlier this year.

Hydrogen Frontier will build the fuelling station using a $3 million (£1.95m) grant from the California Energy Commission and will be the first publicly accessible hydrogen fuelling station in San Bernardino County. It is expected to be completed by October 2014.

Earlier this year a new public-private partnership to support fuel cell electric vehicles was launched in the US whilst a report predicted more than a million hydrogen-powered electric cars could be on UK roads by 2030.