Hyundai’s Tucson Fuel Cell Crossover Sets World Record For Speed
When you think of eco-friendly, alternative-fuel vehicles do you immediately think of a speed demon? No? Well, get ready to change your mind because Hyundai’s Tucson Fuel Cell crossover just set a world record for speed.
The Hydrogen ute set a land speed record on the Soggy Dry Lake Bed in the California desert last month. In the footage filmed by Hyundai, the voiceover appropriately states, “The desert: a place where legends are born and lost. A barren wasteland where the brave come to push themselves and their vehicles to the limits.”
The Tucson set the world record for the fastest production hydrogen-powered crossover – a record that, admittedly, didn’t exist until now but a record nonetheless! After all, the Tucson Fuel Cell is the first of its kind. The car’s run around the dry lake bed hit a record-setting 94.6-mph. No modifications were made to the vehicle for the record runs. Talk about blazing new trails.
“We do not certify the result officially,” Hyundai Product PR Manager Derek Joyce says. “But I was there, and we achieved the speed by both GPS VBOX and radar, and it is recorded in the video. The Tucson Fuel Cell is the world’s only production fuel cell SUV (there could be prototypes out there), so we are the first to set this specific category record.”
There aren’t any other hydrogen fuel cell crossovers on the market currently so the record should stand for a few years. Mercedes-Benz is rumored to be working on a hydrogen-powered version of its GLC-Class small crossover, but it won’t arrive for sale until 2018 or so.
Hyundai has been ahead of the game for some time now; its first Tucson Fuel Cell crossover pulled into the owner’s garage in 2014. The Korean automaker currently has approximately 100 of its hydrogen vehicles on California roads, which is the only state in the US that has a robust enough hydrogen infrastructure to support daily driving.
There’s no doubt that hydrogen cars are our future, though. They emit nothing more than pure water and have already provided over 800,000 driven zero emissions miles to California families. They’re high performers too – if the Soggy Dry Lake Bed was 265 miles long, the Tucson could traverse it on a single fill and it would take less than 5 minutes to refuel.
The Tucson uses its fuel cell stack to power and spin the front wheels with an electric motor that makes 134 horsepower and 221 pound-feet of torque. They’re currently only available to lease in southern California, but we do have other EV options available at Rosen Hyundai today. They may not promise zero emissions but we have some extraordinarily efficient vehicles just waiting for you to test drive. Visit us today!
