Mass-produced, hydrogen-powered cars were once called the wave of the distant future. Hyundai just advanced the timetable as the first production Hyundai ix35 Fuel Cell crossovers rolled off the production line in Ulsan, Korea, earlier this year. It’s based on the small crossover called the Hyundai Tucson in the US. The ix35/Tucson Fuel Cell converts hydrogen to electricity to power electric motors, rather than burning hydrogen in place of gasoline as BMW has done with its internal combustion hydrogen cars. Either way, the only emission is water vapor.

Hyundai says it will produce 1,000 ix35 Fuel Cell vehicles by 2015. Initial production will be for municipal fleets in Copenhagen, Denmark, and in Skane, Sweden. Early hydrogen vehicle deployments are limited to locations with a refueling infrastucture. With a Hyundai-reported driving range of 370 miles (594 km), there would be no need to refuel until the vehicle returns to the main garage at night.

How Hyundai’s fuel cell works (caution: blonde joke follows)

A hydrogen fuel cell works by converting hydrogen to electricity inside the cell, where an anode and cathode are separated by a membrane. At the anode the hydrogen is split into electrons and protons (hydrogen ions). The polymer membrane only allows protons to pass, while the electrons flow through a battery to the electric motor. At the cathode, the hydrogen electrons and protons are reunited and combine with oxygen (outside air) to form water (H 2 O).

We hear Hyundai may also market a model that converts the components into H 2 O 2 , or hydrogen peroxide, for Swedish motorists who are not naturally blonde and wish to fit in. Stay tuned.

The hydrogen is stored in a pair of heavily armored tanks that combine for a capacity of 12.4 pounds (5.6kg) of heavily compressed hydrogen, which is a lot considering hydrogen in its natural, uncompressed state is lighter than air. Locomotion for the ix35 Fuel Cell comes from a 136hp (100kW) electric motor that tops out at 100 mph (160 kph). The energy is buffered by a 24kW lithium-ion polymer battery developed by LG Chemical and Hyundai.

Want one of your own? Today, they’d cost in “the upper $100,000s per car,” Frank Ahrens, a Hyundai spokesman, told US News & World Report. By the time Hyundai shifts from fleet sales to individual buyers, around 2015, the price might fall to $50,000.

The cost of being green

While the only emission from the vehicle is water vapor, there are concerns about how hydrogen gets to be hydrogen in the tank. Right now, a common conversion process takes natural gas, applies energy, and leaves behind a carbon footprint worse than any environmentalist would hope for. You could fare better in the short run just going with a natural gas vehicle such as the Honda Civic Natural Gas. Researchers are working on extracting hydrogen from other sources, whether sea water or the sludge in a waste treatment plant. (See: The fuel cell that turns poop into power.)

This is the third generation hydrogen vehicle from Hyundai/Kia since 1999. Another hydrogen backer is BMW, which showed a series of hydrogen-powered BMW 7 Series vehicles as limited production prototypes. BMW used liquified hydrogen, which requires different equipment at a hydrogen refueling station. While the effort to liquefy is greater, there’s more energy stored in a smaller package (that still takes up more than a third of the big sedan’s trunk). Liquid hydrogen also boils away over a couple weeks if it’s just garaged. But BMW burns the hydrogen in an engine that also burns gasoline, so just like a plug-in hybrid that doesn’t strand you when the battery charge runs down, this one is suitable as a long-distance tourer.

Safer than you think

The Hyundai production start-up preceded by just a couple weeks the (possibly) final word on what brought down the Hindenburg in 1937: a jolt of static electricity when the tethering lines grounded themselves to the earth in Lakehurst, NJ. Despite the jokes, a hydrogen-powered vehicle may be safer than a gas-engine car. The fuel is in incredibly well-armored tanks. If they overheat, the hydrogen is vented directly to the atmosphere and shoots up, while gasoline pools on the ground.

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