A number of major car brands, like Honda, General Motors, and Toyota, promises a limited number of production version of fuel cell vehicles by 2015. Hyundai wants to get ahead of the race and announced last year that they will have production hydrogen cars by 2013.

The first batch of HFCV or hydrogen fuel cell vehicles will debut later on this year and be officially rolled out by next year. These vehicles will not be driven on the roads of Korea or of North America but will hit the asphalts of Europe where hydrogen powered vehicles has a wider acceptance.

Hyundai taps the Tucson ix which is derived from the crossover of the same name. The tag price of the fuel cell vehicle is expected to be $88,550 before deducting any government incentives. The car manufacturer aims to sell their vehicles below the $50K line by 2015 which makes them well ahead of the competitions who also announced possible release of their fuel cell vehicles. Hyundai foresees selling around 10,000 units of this green car annually by 2015.

Hyundai was recently praised and tapped by the government of Denmark for their FCEV initiative. The country acquired 10 Hyundai Tucson ix units to do a road test. Countries like Germany, Denmark, and the Netherlands among other countries in Europe are trying to form a “hydrogen highway” complete with the necessary infrastructure. Car brands like Hyunda, Honda, BMW, Toyota, and Mazda are working with the said governments to do a test run of this green highway.

The hydrogen revolution in Europe goes well beyond cars and will include heavy vehicles as well as public utility buses.

Not everyone is a fan of hydrogen cars but you the naysayers should wonder why almost every brand of vehicle in the world is pouring in big funds and talents to produce hydrogen fuel cell vehicles.

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These fuel cells and hydrogen storage systems will be used mainly for transportation purposes. The autonomous projects will focus largely on applications, manufacturing volumes, and system sizes not only for transportation purposes but also for handling equipments and backup power mechanisms. These projects will help the US Department of Energy in terms of fuel efficiency.

The autonomous cost analyses will go through the National Laboratories’ system models, literature and patent research, development presentations, and peer review. Here’s a rundown of the four autonomous projects that have been selected for an award:

Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory, whose home base is located in Berkeley, CA, has been awarded with $1.9 million. They are to develop cost models for high and low temperature immobile fuel cell systems at 250 kilowatts.

Direct Technologies, Inc., whose home base is located in Arlington, VA, has been awarded with almost $3 million for their two projects. The first project will focus on transportation fuel cell systems while the second one will focus on hydrogen storage systems.

Battelle Memorial Institute, whose home base is located at Columbus OH, has been awarded with $2 million for them to produce cost assessments for immobile fuel cell applications that includes backup power units, a combination of power and heat systems, primary power, and forklifts.

The manufacturer presents 3 variants of this electric driven car. They are designed on a modular basis to permit flexibility.

The E-Cell makes use of a liquid cooled battery made of lithium ion. This is considered to be a pure electric vehicle and can run for 125 miles without any charging.

Another concept car for release is the E-Cell PLUS which makes use of turbo charge facility. This added feature does not bring in more power to the car but serves the purpose of charging the battery when they are low. The vehicle will run for around 60 miles before tapping into the power of the turbo charge.

The higher end model of the BlueZERO concept is the F-Cell. This car offers 250 miles of travel utilizing the power from the battery and the cell range extender triggered after 60 miles.

Mercedes is riding the technology of lithium-ion battery being built up by Evonik Industries. These battery packs are able to store as much as 35 kW hours and are able to quickly charge to avoid travel delays. The cars are also equipped with a very intelligent system that may interlink with a smart charging station with electronic billing capabilities.

The motor of the E-Cell can output around 136 horse power. This means that the E-Cell can accelerate from 0-60 in just 11 seconds.

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