State of Charge: Green News for Cali, not so much Canada

This compares to C$599/month for the Tucson FCEV three-year lease, which is $100 more per month than California buyers are paying for the same vehicle, but also includes free fuel, normally a particularly pricy commodity in Vancouver. The Tucson FCEV will arrive in early 2015, to Canadian hand-raisers that express an interest at the new site www.hyundaihydrogen.ca.

Also of interest to future (potential) Canadian fuel cell buyers: Toyota Motor Corporation managing officer Satoshi Ogiso said that some of the Mirai’s 480 km range would diminish in cold temperatures, though not nearly as much as the winter range depletes in a battery electric vehicle, plus the Mirai will offer an electrical power source in the trunk that can provide continuous backup power to a home, campsite or even a grid for up to a week.

The unique Mirai is Toyota’s “all-in” declaration on fuel cells, though the fact that its unique shape featuring honking big triangular front air intakes were previously shown in more-or-less production form muted its newsworthy appeal at the show.

Volkswagen took the opposite approach with its LA show debuts: it unveiled hydrogen-powered HyMotion versions of its U.S. Passat sedan and European Golf SportWagen hatchback research vehicles. Both use a hydrogen fuel cell stack fed from four (four!) compressed hydrogen tanks under the car’s floor, with several prototypes of the Passat FCEV being field tested in California now. But Volkswagen seems much more cautious on the prospects of fuel cells coming to market, stating that not only are more hydrogen fuel stations needed, but more compressed hydrogen production was well.

Honda Civic Natural Gas, Honda HR-V, Volkswagen Golf SportsWagen HyMotion. Click image to enlarge

Perhaps the most appealing combination of advanced drivetrain plus come hither looks that debuted in LA was the Audi A7 Sportback h-tron quattro. Mating the same 500+ kilometre fuel cell stack as in the Volkswagens to a relatively small 8.8 kW lithium-ion battery, this Audi A7 adds plug-in and silent low-speed capability to the fuel cell’s quick refueling and long distance capabilities. Audi has some very specific European fuel efficiency numbers for the A7 h-tron, a rarity for any “concept” vehicle: 50 km of all-electric range, and a combined city/highway average between 4.7 and 9.5 L(equivalent)/100 km (NEDC).

That’s a rather wide band, but not bad at all for a luxury four-door that can romp from 0-100km/h in 7.9 seconds. It seems like a worthwhile combination of advanced componentry, if a pricy one, but there’s no word on the market timing of the A7 h-tron concept car.

One vehicle that will make it to market is the plug-in Mercedes-Benz S550 – at least the California market. It won’t be offered in Canada, at least at launch, mainly because the 436 hp luxury sedan is only available in rear-wheel drive, conceded one official, though it’s still under active consideration.

The S550 Plug-in Hybrid offers an electric range of up to 32 km, with a sporting 5.2 second zero to 100km/h time possible in full zoot mode, and when not, Mercedes-Benz says it can average a miserly combined city/highway rating of 2.8 L/100 km (NEDC).

Walking around the show floor, there were many of these California-only cars. The all-electric Volkswagen Golf, Fiat 500e, and natural gas-powered Honda Civic, while the aggressively yellow Lexus LF-C2 convertible concept may or may not be available to anyone.

But enough about cars we can’t actually receive. There were some actual cars and crossovers even us Canadians could buy that debuted in LA, most of them fuel efficient small crossovers and hatchbacks detailed elsewhere, such as the Honda HR-V, Mazda CX-3  and the seemingly production-ready Scion iM Concept, which will ostensibly replace the still popular Toyota Matrix five-door.

Considering that these reasonably priced small cars and crossovers all seem destined to sell in big numbers, they could in fact save more in fuel bills for their owners and prevent more emissions for everyone else than all the fuel cells and plug-ins shown in LA combined – especially in Canada.