Hyundai has followed news of its IONIQ line of electrified vehicles and roadmap for connected car development with an announcement that its cars will power the "world's first" fuel cell-powered zero-emission car-sharing service. BeeZero has launched exclusively using Hyundai ix35 vehicles.
Hyundai describes the ix35 as the first mass-produced and commercially-available fuel cell electric vehicle (FCEV). The carmaker says there are currently over 250 on the roads in Europe, which it claims is more than all FCEVs from every other manufacturer combined, and that the ix35 will travel for up to 600 km (373 mi) on a full tank.
BeeZero is operating in Munich, using 50 of the ix35 FCEVs. The vehicles can be booked online or via a mobile app and the service will be run on a zone-based model. Users are able to pick the cars up in Munich's city center or in the areas of Schwabing, Haidhausen, Au and Glockenbachviertel.
"We expect to gain valuable information from day-to-day fleet operations, which we will use to further develop our hydrogen technologies and to help expanding the H2 infrastructure," says Dr Christian Bruch, member of the Executive Board of the Linde Group, of which BeeZero is a subsidiary. "BeeZero synergises two mobility trends that are gaining a lot of ground at the moment – car sharing and zero emissions – and will bring the benefits of fuel-cell technology to a wider group of potential users."
In addition to the ix35 vehicles producing no emissions, the Linde Group says that it sources its hydrogen fuel from sustainable production processes, making it completely carbon-neutral.
BeeZero launched in Munich yesterday.
Sources: Hyundai, BeeZero, Linde Group