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

Right on the heels of a fuel-cell-focused LA auto show, Hyundai Canada confirmed today that it will bring its Tucson fuel cell electric vehicle (FCEV) to Canada, or at least to the greater Vancouver area, by publicly re-commissioning various hydrogen fuel stations used during the 2010 Winter Olympics for fuel cell passenger cars that had since been used only for research purposes. Thus the various fuel cell introductions and announcements in LA now strike a more relevant note up here in Canada.

With fuel cells and hydrogen-powered vehicles the dominant green theme, the contrast between the California car market and the Canadian one was particularly striking. With most of North America outside southern California currently without a viable network of publicly available hydrogen fuel stations, this year’s most significant green car announcement around the LA auto show may not be Toyota’s launch of its ground-breaking Mirai fuel cell production car, but Toyota’s investment of millions of dollars in 12 hydrogen fuel cell stations in five northeast states, in association with industrial fuel provider Air Liquide.

Any such aggressive fuel cell plans are good news for the greater Vancouver area of BC, which is still a global hotbed for automotive fuel cell research, though the public hydrogen infrastructure in all other parts of the country is still largely non-existent.

Daimler AG has set up a Mercedes-Benz Fuel Cell facility in Burnaby, BC, and they are still partners with Ford in the Automotive Fuel Cell Company, which arose when auto fuel cell pioneer Ballard Power Systems had had enough of automaker and fuel retailer dithering and decided to focus on fuel cells for fork lifts and other industrial applications. Ford, Mercedes-Benz and Nissan are co-developing a fuel cell that they’ve announced a plan to introduce by 2017, using many of the same researchers and facilities that Ballard used to make many of their breakthroughs in the late 1990s.

Audi A7 h-tron, Toyota Mirai, Fiat 500e. Click image to enlarge

In a panel discussion just before the show on the challenges and plans to expand the five state northeast hydrogen infrastructure, Air Liquide CEO Ole Hofelmann said that while the company has no firm plans to open a station never mind a hydrogen network of stations in Canada, the launch of those northeast stations could help it build on the firm’s strong industrial base here.

“We are looking for how to go north from the northeast stations,” which will focus primarily in and around Boston and New York City to start.

No firm completion date was set for those 12 stations, but Toyota said it planned to start selling (or mostly leasing) the Mirai in the northeast by the end of 2016, and in other areas as the infrastructure expanded. “We expect tens of thousands sold in the 2020s,” said Takeshi Uchiyamada, chairman of the Toyota Motor Corporation board, and known at the company as the spiritual father to the Prius.

Why does Toyota expect about 90 percent of its early Mirai buyers to lease?

Because they may be early adopters, but they’re not dumb. Even with US$13,000 off its $57,500 MSRP ($8,000 is the max U.S. zero emissions vehicle incentive, plus a $5,000 California one), that’d still be more than $1,236/month if paid over three years – and that’s with no interest charges – compared to the 36-month lease deal Toyota recently announced at $499/month. Toyota admits it’s not making money on either of these prices, plus it will pay for the fuel of these first customers, until the U.S. or state authorities confirm standards to accurately measure and dispense compressed hydrogen fuel, which Hofelmann suggested will take another six months to a year.

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.