Jordan Treloar & Lucas Holmes
Australia has again become a proving ground for new automotive technologies with Hyundai and Toyota introducing hydrogen power to our roads, hoping to successfully combat the growing electric vehicle market in the next few years.
Key Points
- Hyundai and Toyota are developing hydrogen powered vehicles and testing their capabilities on Australian roads
- There is a distinct lack of refuelling infrastructure for hydrogen in Australia for these cars to be viable as of 2020
- Australian company H2X are developing their own hydrogen powered vehicles to be manufactured in Australia
Hyundai and Toyota are attempting to develop hydrogen fuelled cars as a competitor to pure battery electric car companies such as Tesla.
READ MORE: HYDROGEN COULD VERY WELL BE THE FUTURE OF AUSTRALIAN MOTORING
To test these cars, Hyundai has partnered with the ACT State Government who have recently taken delivery of a fleet of brand-new Hyundai Nexo’s, a hydrogen powered SUV that emits just water.
CarsGuide’s Tung Nguyen says the company is using this fleet to evaluate the future of this technology.
“For Hyundai, it means that they can bring in a fleet of Nexo’s that they have already sold and trial them in Australia. A private buyer can’t buy a Nexo yet, so for Hyundai it’s almost a way to test and prove the viability of a hydrogen car,” Nguyen said.
The real problem however is the lack of hydrogen refuelling infrastructure. Without a place to refuel, the technology isn’t viable, despite being more suitable for the demands of driving in Australia compared to pure battery electric cars.
READ MORE: THE NEXT GENERATION TOYOTA MIRAI COULD BE ON ON ITS WAY DOWN UNDER
Both Hyundai and Toyota have introduced their own refuelling technology, but there is still a significant deficiency in refuelling stations. Nguyen says that hydrogen now faces the same issues that electric cars faced a decade ago.
“It’s not a question of if they can build the cars, because they can. The question is can we support those cars with the right refuelling infrastructure,” Nguyen said.
“It’s like the EV [Electric Vehicle] debate. What came first, the chicken or the egg? Do you build the infrastructure before the cars or do you introduce the cars and the infrastructure will come?”
READ MORE: HYUNDAI’S NEXO ARRIVES IN AUSTRALIA FOR THE ACT STATE GOVERNMENT
Hydrogen is powering a resurgence in Australian manufacturing with H2X
Australian company H2X is planning on producing hydrogen powered vehicles in Australia, taking over a market where Ford, Holden and Toyota once dominated, planning to first build agricultural vehicles powered by hydrogen and then an SUV for the general public.
While a fairly new company, Nguyen says they have the right ingredients to be successful.
“This company is very early in its infancy and it has got quite a way to go before they build and sell a car in Australia, but their plans are ambitious and bold and I think any local manufacturing capability they can bring to Australia again is a good thing,” Nguyen said.
“The people behind that company have all had experience in the motoring industry in Australia before, including quite a number of big executives working on this project. Some of them used to work in Hyundai, some used to work in Toyota, so there is experience and precedence there.”