Dr Won Suk Cho, president of Hyundai America Technical Center, delivers the first test Tucson FCEV to Rick Fernandez, General Manager of AC Transit, in Los Angeles.

Hyundai Motor Company has just delivered the first of 10 Tucson Fuel Cell Electric Vehicles (FCEV) to a major Los Angeles-based bus operation for real-world fleet testing.

The handover to the Alameda-Contra Costa Transit District (AC Transit) marked the beginning of a five-year demonstration and validation project designed to evaluate fuel cell vehicles and hydrogen infrastructure technologies.

“Hyundai’s partnership with AC Transit represents the first time that a third-party has been involved in our fuel cell vehicle research and it marks another milestone in our effort to bring this technology to commercialization,” said Dr. Won Suk Cho, president, Hyundai America Technical Center, Inc., which is responsible for alternative fuel research in the United States. “Our vehicles will be operating in real-world working environments everyday proving the viability of this technology.”

Hyundai, Chevron Corporation and UTC Power were awarded a U.S. Department of Energy grant in April 2004 to support research into hydrogen-powered fuel cell technology for automotive applications. The team officially began testing in February 2005 when Chevron opened its first-ever hydrogen energy station at the Hyundai America Technical Center (HATCI) in Chino, Calif. In addition to HATCI and AC Transit, fleets will also be placed at Southern California Edison (an energy utility company) and the U.S. Army facilities in Detroit to develop and implement a practical, business-based hydrogen energy infrastructure and associated technologies as a part of the five-year program.

“AC Transit and its more than 2,300 employees are very proud to join with Hyundai, Chevron, and UTC Power in this extremely important demonstration. The use of Hyundai fuel cell vehicles by our staff to support our bus operations in densely populated urban areas will be an excellent operating environment to test the capability of zero-emission vehicles under rigorous conditions,” remarked Rick Fernandez, General Manager of AC Transit.

Hyundai plans to place two additional Tucson FCEVs with AC Transit very soon and will round out the fleet with six more FCEV models later this year and in 2007. HATCI engineers will support and monitor the FCEVs for the duration of the program.

The Tucson FCEV's 80kW power plant is under the front hood, unlike the cabin room-cribbing under-floor installation of earlier fuel cell prototypes, it can propel the car to a maximum speed of 150km/h, it has a range of 300km and is well advanced in the challenging quest to enable starting and operating in sub-zero temperatures, given the role of water integral in fuel cell technology.

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