Kia joins fuel cell race, expects 10,000 units sold by 2015

Kia joins fuel cell race, expects 10,000 units sold by 2015

Kia is hoping to become one of the leading fuel cell electric vehicle makers by 2015. Time lines have been vague, as they only mentioned that sales will start somewhere between 2010 and 2012. But when it kicks off, they are looking at a production figure of 1,000 to 2,000 vehicles a year, eventually reaching their goal of 10,000 vehicles on the road by 2015. Kia, which along with parent company Hyundai have been working on fuel cell tech since 2000, will initially offer the FCEVs to government bodies and research institutions.

The company’s Borrego FCEV prototype reaches 100 km/h in 12 seconds and has a top speed of 170 km/h. The SUV is capable of covering 600 km before needing to refuel. Power delivery is slightly different in Kia’s fuel cell stack, as it delivers electricity directly to the electric motor via a supercapacitor. Unlike the usual battery system, this application allows for a quicker response time.

What about the expected high price of such a car? Kia feels they have remedied the issue by producing a vehicle that will have a 10-year life expectancy along with reducing the component cost of the car by 95%.

Do you think that hydrogen fuel cell is the future of motoring?

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Jacob Alexander

Jacob Mathew Alexander has been a motoring nut for as far as he can remember and has recently turned his passion into writing. After spending some time in the same industry in the UK, Jacob's work is from a slightly different perspective.

 

Comments

  • brian on May 27, 2010 at 2:01 pm

    way to go!

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  • Kevin Lau on May 27, 2010 at 2:12 pm

    Almost every car manufacturer is creating battery operated cars…is like they are making my younger days toys cars bigger…lol

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    • paultan fan on May 29, 2010 at 10:33 am

      yup. also chinese manufacturing like chery also enter the market FCEV. i thk hydrogen fuel is future. also EV car and hybrd

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  • I can only say EV is NOT THE WAY TO GO (unless they come out with some piece of technology that can produce electricity dirty cheap). Bio Diesel is also not the way to go. What’s left are Fuel Cell or some tech that is not yet been discovered

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    • y just don battery = electric efficiency >80%
      rather hydrogen+ chemical reaction = electric efficiency <50%

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  • Motorist on May 27, 2010 at 3:24 pm

    Quote Do you think that hydrogen fuel cell is the future of motoring?

    Hydrogen, yes. Fuel cell, maybe.

    Hydrogen internal combustion was proven by BMW. Yes, it’s still an “inefficient” & “dirty” (ie. requiring fossil lubricants etc) but it gave the range & power as the internal combustion engines we are all so familiar with. It’s also a half-step towards zero emission goal.

    Hydrogen Fuel Cell is a big step towards zero emission but as I mentioned many times, batteries raw materials mining, shipping, manufacturing & disposal is extremely toxic. Thus, taken as a whole sum, batteries will cause more environmental damage than the zero emission that it produces.

    We tend to look at things from our own consumer view. Yes, we give out less emission with Hydrogen Fuel Cells vs turbo diesel or even Hydrogen internal combustion. But the whole process from mining to disposal of batteries would negate the so called benefits we gain.

    There is no perfect system yet. Me, I’d rather not go battery system due to the toxic batteries but rather prefer a cleaner alternative such as turbo diesel or hydrogen internal combustion.

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    • CocoBear on May 27, 2010 at 8:11 pm

      I am little skeptical with hydrogen internal combustion. What I know is that hydrogen internal combustion uses more energy than fossil fuel vehicle they replace. Since u mentioned BMW, I give u a case.
      The BMW Hydrogen 7 uses 254 kWh/100 km whereas the average fossil fuel car in Britain uses 8.kWh per 100km. No matter how “refined” is your engine, hydrogen is no substitute to fossil fuel because oil has a great comodity being energy carrier and easy to store. Anyway, there is an interesting story about this usage in Formula H.
      http://rmit.edu.au/print;ID=62ks592jxz7r;LOCATION=News%252520and%252520Events%25252FNews%25252Fby%252520title%25252FF%253BID%253D62ks592jxz7r%253BSTATUS%253DA;STATUS=A

      With regards to hydrogen fuel cell, the fuel celll unit still uses hydrogen, in which hydrogen has a negative EROEI (Energy Return On Energy Invested). For example, to extract a unit of oil, the process consumes about 10 to 0.7 unit. Although hydrogen is abundant in the universe, it does not occur naturally as a single element. Therefore, in a normal case, electrolisis is the only way to produce hydrogen, which consumes a lot of electricity (energy).

      Even though I dig for Honda FCX Clarity for its simplicity and boldness, I don’t think it is the future of motoring. Right now, Malaysia should focus on developing alternative fuel like biofuel. Remember our palm oil research back in the 90s? Diesel engine coupled with vegetable oil can be one of the best solution because burning vegetable oil won’t create hazardous substance like SO2 and CO, and they are so abundant in Malaysia!
      Have a look at this application: http://www.diesel-therm.com/vegetable-oil-kit.htm

      Hope my words will inspire the readers here…

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      • Motorist on May 28, 2010 at 12:00 pm

        Wow, great write up CocoBear.

        You have sold me on the wastage of energy of Hydrogen internal combustion. Perhaps I was looking at the “green” effect without understanding the energy cycle.

        Check this video out: Water Fuel Injection System – Water Fuel Cell
        http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CBLLOuyOXnw&NR=1

        The inventor Stan Meyer
        http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GDHT0hBgVOw

        Kind of reminded me of Who Killed The Electric Car documentary.

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  • mazda MPS is a stoopid guy on May 27, 2010 at 4:20 pm

    in the future plasma propulsion rules!!!

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  • Squawk on May 27, 2010 at 4:28 pm

    Looks like Korea are experimenting with various alternative energy sources.

    Korea have started biofuel & biodiesel program and have an agreement with Indonesia as raw material supplier. And it’s not palm oil.

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    • paultan fan on May 29, 2010 at 10:35 am

      also chinese. i thk future, korean and chinese will be dominan especially in new alternative energy hybrid, EV and FCEV. also solar car

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  • think on May 27, 2010 at 11:37 pm

    the world automotive cannot be solely run on electricity..now every manufacturer is saying that evs are the future!!!!!!!are the future!!!!!!!!but luckily only one manufacturer have known the future well which is honda………the future automotive will run on multiple fuels…petrol station which sells petrol,diesel and ngv in malysia will have hydrogen,electric charging and many other fuel type in future…this is the reality!!!!!!!!!>>>>>>>think

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  • bobby on May 28, 2010 at 2:18 am

    YES YES YES !!

    It is the future.

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  • Michael Halpin on May 28, 2010 at 3:33 am

    The answer is yes,yes,yes.
    Yes we have to move away from combustion to electric vehicles and fuel cells have come down in size and price over the last five years and will continue to do so.

    Yes with new nano technology hydrogen will be able to be produced cheaply fom a variety of feedstocks.

    Yes we will all benefit, with zero pollution from the tail-pipe,and clean drinkable water as a by-product delivered via a fuel cell.

    Mike H. founder HYROGENHEADS

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  • Tom Blakeslee on May 28, 2010 at 5:37 am

    This car will be great for greenwashing. Too bad the hydrogen will probably be coal-based. With a 30% efficient coal power plant and a 67% efficient electrolysis process it should end up about 20% efficient use of coal power. Too bad a 13-ton hydrogen delivery truck can only deliver 10 fillups.
    A fraud!!!

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  • transmorpher on May 29, 2010 at 2:22 pm

    i dont know how hydrogen is produced in the market currently, but regardless of how inefficient hydrogen combustion is, when the system is in place, and the hydrogen fuelling facilities are available, the end result coming out from your exhaust will have 0 effect on the environment. When it has been brought to market properly, then production of hydrogen facilities will be targeted, or it might even be targeted before the rise of hydrogen fuel cells. As currently electric cars will get their ‘electricity’ from the burning of fossil fuels. So when alternative(green) forms of power are produced. This can be used in the clean production of hydrogen. as far as i know from my school days, hydrogen can be produced from electrolisis, i donno how energy hungry the process is, but im sure that research will make hydrogen fuel cells a environmentally sound choice. because at the moment Ive not heard of an alternative?

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