Hyundai's Tuscon Fuel Cell has unofficially set the first land speed record for production fuel cell SUVs. The Tucson achieved a top speed of 94.6 mph (152.2 km/h) during runs at the Soggy Dry Lake Bed in Southern California.
The Tucson Fuel Cell was the first mass-produced fuel cell vehicle (FCV), with deliveries being made to customers from June 2014. It has a driving range of driving range of 265 mi (426 km) and can be refuelled in less than five minutes.
No modifications were made to the vehicle for the record runs, which took place on a flat and dry 1-mi (1.6-km) stretch of the Californian lake on Nov. 11. Hyundai tells Gizmag that several runs were carried out, though some were to simply provide the various required camera angles for documenting the day.
"We did not certify the result officially," Hyundai Product PR Manager Derek Joyce tells us. "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."
The video below documents the achievement.
Source: Hyundai