[Dex]

Ok well maybe not together... but Mike O'Brien, VP of corporate and product planning chatted with Car and Driver about Hydrogen and the Santa Cruz in New York.

“We’ve been working on that very actively,” O’Brien told C/D. “It’s still not an approved production program, but we’ve got a significant, big team of engineers working on it. Once we understand the cost and feasibility, then it gets raised up through our product planning. It’s basically progressing, and so far very positive, but no production go-ahead yet. We’re still working on that.”

O’Brien says the Santa Cruz would fill a void in the market in terms of size, price, and capability. “It’s for people that generally end up in a compact or subcompact SUV, but that’s not really what they wanted,” he said. “From our perspective, there’s this big unmet need, people that want something that’s easy to park in a more urban environment, that’s easy to garage, that gets good fuel economy. There’s no open-bed product that gets 30 mpg yet.”

Talking Poop and Santa Cruz With Hyundai's Product Planner ? News ? Car and Driver | Car and Driver Blog



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[Santana]

In places like Cali I can see this doing well as they have a decent spread of refueling stations around. Maybe that will be one of the initial markets they launch in?

 

[Colin]

Does California have hydrogen fuelling stations? I didn't think that infrastructure existed anywhere really.

 

[BahamaTodd]

Does California have hydrogen fuelling stations? I didn't think that infrastructure existed anywhere really.

California is one of a few places that has any hydrogen fueling.
Station map | California Fuel Cell Partnership

 

[Santana]

California is one of a few places that has any hydrogen fueling.
Station map | California Fuel Cell Partnership

Yup, and they have a generous spread of it going on.
Cali is currently the best market for a green vehicle to launch.
I think even cadillac launched its ELR their along with some other states, I just remember that it was a select amount of states initially, not nation wide.

 

[don4331]

8 stations currently open?!

How do you make Hydrogen fuel? - use carbon/nuclear/hydro/wind.
It's like alcohol fuel - the end product used more energy than it produces; pollution just wound up in someone else's backyard.

 

[Santana]

8 stations currently open?!

How do you make Hydrogen fuel? - use carbon/nuclear/hydro/wind.
It's like alcohol fuel - the end product used more energy than it produces; pollution just wound up in someone else's backyard.

a google search brings this up:

There are different ways to produce it, such as electrolysis and steam-methane reforming process. In electrolysis, electricity is run through water to separate the hydrogen and oxygen atoms. This method can use wind, solar, geothermal, hydro, fossil fuels, biomass, nuclear, and many other energy sources.

 

[Colin]

California is one of a few places that has any hydrogen fueling.
Station map | California Fuel Cell Partnership

OK, they only have 8 right now actually according to that map, but they are building a lot more. At the point that they have invested so much money in this infrastructure, they must really be anticipating hydrogen powered vehicles make a good run at the market.

 

[Santana]

Exactly, they're well ahead of many other places. They will almost always will be when it comes to innovative green technology from cars to homes, they are the go to environment.

 

[Colin]

Exactly, they're well ahead of many other places. They will almost always will be when it comes to innovative green technology from cars to homes, they are the go to environment.

I guess you need the infrastructure before people will really consider buying hydrogen vehicles, but it seems like a risky move with taxpayer money. What if hydrogen vehicles never take off? That will have been a big waste of money.

 

[Santana]

Not everything will be a win, for all we know it could be huge flop with hundreds of millions wasted, but that's the price of being in the game and not sitting on the sidelines.

 

[Colin]

I suppose so. California isn't exactly rolling in money though. I think I would choose to put more resources towards the drought and let another state or country take the lead on hydrogen. If it works there then maybe I'd be interested in setting up some infrastructure. Or perhaps Toyota itself could make an investment in good ol' California.

It'll be interesting to see how things go for hydrogen vehicles.

 

[Santana]

Unless they're pulling money from the fed with the idea of implementing this having the sort of soundness feds want to hear and see.

 

[Dex]

Japan has an interesting hydrogen plan as does germany if i remember correctly



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[Colin]

I'm not surprised that Japan has a plan for this. Toyota is surely in bed with the government and besides that Japan has an interest in being on the fore front of this. Toyota is the company that is developing this tech so it would be a huge boon for Toyota and Japan if it catches on.

 

[Santana]

China should be another one they've got deep pockets that could support this sort of thing.