2019 Hyundai Nexo first drive review: The hydrogen-powered crossover

How poignant, simply days after studying dire warnings about climate change from the UN, to be driving an alternative-fuel automobile that guarantees no native emissions in any respect. Might hydrogen fuel-cell automobiles be the automobiles of the long run?

The 2019 Hyundai Nexo goals to persuade that the reply sure. Like the present Toyota Mirai and Honda Clarity, it’s fueled with hydrogen and its solely waste produce is water. Assuming the gas is made utilizing renewable electrical energy strategies, hydrogen may very well be the last word inexperienced energy supply for future automobiles. And, in contrast to another fuel-cell fashions, the Nexo would not really feel such as you’re driving a science undertaking.

Again to science class

A fast reminder of how a fuel-cell automotive works: Pumps drive hydrogen from the gas tank and oxygen from the surface air right into a particular gadget referred to as the fuel-cell stack, the place chemical reactions convert these gasses into electrons (i.e., electrical energy) and water. That electrical energy, in flip, goes to an electrical motor that drives the automotive. The Nexo additionally has a 1.56-kilowatt-hour battery to retailer extra vitality from the gas cell and to permit for recouping some by way of regenerative braking.

The Nexo can retailer 14.Zero kilos of hydrogen onboard in its 13.Eight-gallon tank system, giving it a driving vary of 380 miles for those who purchase the bottom Blue trim degree. That falls to 354 miles with the extremely geared up Restricted model, as a result of its weight and larger wheels scale back effectivity. Effectivity on the transfer is rated at 61 miles per gallon equal (MPGe) mixed for the Blue mannequin and 57 MPGe mixed for the Restricted.

These vary figures are additional than most of at the moment’s electrical automobiles can journey on one cost. Extra importantly, topping up with hydrogen takes solely 5 minutes or so, versus the prolonged recharging occasions required by an EV.

The hydrogen storage system consists of three tanks formed, apparently, just like the Minions from the Despicable Me movies, with engineers thus nicknaming the tanks Kevin, Bob and Stewart. Through the use of three smaller tanks somewhat than one or two giant ones, Hyundai engineers say they have been capable of maximize back-seat and cargo house. The association additionally permits for becoming multilink rear suspension. The battery sits beneath the trunk ground, whereas the fuel-cell stack and electrical drive motor are within the engine bay.

Not-too-weird styling

In case you peek in our galleries of the Mirai and Readability, you may assume that each one fuel-cell automobiles are legally required to look… uncommon. Hyundai bucks that development with the Nexo; it is a futuristic tackle the model’s crossover design language, positive, however not one thing that seems to have descended from a sci-fi movie.

“We selected an SUV physique due to the practicality that US clients place on an SUV seating place,” says Mike O’Brien, Hyundai’s vice chairman for product planning, including that the Nexo was styled to be, “A really acceptable design, a design that folks will search for and search out.”

The Nexo seems largely like another crossover, albeit with eco-car-specific styling cues like a full-width working mild strip throughout its nostril, door handles that retract flush into the bodywork, aerodynamically optimized wheel designs and a drag-reducing “air tunnel” D-pillar. All of it leads to a commendable Zero.32 drag coefficient and a automobile that’s recognizable as a Hyundai, undeniably futuristic, but nonetheless fairly palatable to on a regular basis automotive customers.

Throughout the cabin, the Nexo takes on a way more cockpit-like look than another Hyundai, what with a tall heart console that recollects the design of Porsche interiors. It is suffering from plenty of buttons, controlling all the pieces from the transmission to driving modes, and from infotainment to the cooled seats. Beneath the console is a storage space with a wi-fi telephone charging pad and additional USB ports. A full-digital shade instrument cluster is straight forward of the motive force.

For infotainment duties, the Nexo makes use of a crisp 12.Three-inch widescreen touchscreen. Whether or not you use it by swiping the show or twisting the rotary dial, it really works seamlessly for all the pieces from navigation and media to energy-flow data and, worryingly, the integrity of the hydrogen tanks and fueling system. (There are hydrogen sensors within the cabin that may provide you with a warning to a leak of the odorless gasoline.)

The again seat is roomy sufficient for an grownup passenger to take a seat upright comfortably. Behind the second of seats you may match 29.6 cubic toes of cargo, which expands to 56.5 cubic toes with the seats lowered. These are comparable figures to a Hyundai Tucson (31.Zero/61.9 cubic toes).

Driving on hydrogen

As a result of it’s, in the end, an electrical automotive that generates its personal electrical energy on board, the Hyundai Nexo drives with the modern, clean and silent demeanor of another EV. With the Nexo weighing Three,990 to four,116 kilos relying on trim, the motor’s 161 horsepower and 291 pound-feet of torque are sufficient in most conditions. It is not particularly fast, though the motor is immediately attentive to throttle inputs at any pace. Hyundai estimates a Zero-60-mph time of 9.5 seconds.

You may modify the extent of regenerative braking, identical to within the new Kona Electrical, by the use of paddles on the steering wheel. Relying on the way you’re driving, it is perhaps that recouped vitality within the battery the powers the Nexo’s entrance wheels: “We use both the battery or the gas cell stack relying on the scenario to get the utmost energy,” explains Jerome Gregeois, Hyundai’s senior supervisor for eco powertrains.

Sadly, the Nexo would not drive as sweetly as different new Hyundai crossovers. The steering weight feels synthetic and twitchy in my palms, and the underdamped suspension engenders plenty of floatiness. That is to not say the Nexo is a chore behind the wheel, however somewhat that it seems like engineers centered extra time on the superior powertrain than the ride-and-handling combine. That is most likely OK given the automotive’s supposed use as an emissions-free commuter.

The cabin is no less than very quiet, owing primarily to the shortage of internal-combustion noises. As well as, Hyundai claims its information present the Nexo is quieter at a 62-mph cruise than a BMW 328i, due to insulated glass and numerous different sound-deadening efforts.

Intelligent applied sciences

Different intelligent applied sciences embody a brand new blind-spot digicam system that, whenever you sign, tasks the view of site visitors on the automotive’s flanks within the instrument cluster. In contrast to Honda’s comparable LaneWatch, the system exhibits each left- and right-hand views, and likewise nonetheless works alongside a standard blind-spot monitoring system. It is a good factor to have when, say, dicing up heavy LA rush-hour site visitors.

Different security tech consists of the anticipated pre-collision warning and braking options and adaptive cruise management. The Nexo might be geared up with lane-centering steering on the freeway, and it’ll even brake and attempt to steer you out of hazard for those who change lanes when there’s one other automobile in your blind spot.

There’s additionally a distant self-parking perform that enables the Nexo to reverse itself into parallel or perpendicular areas. The motive force hops out, holds a button on the distant key fob, and the Nexo does the remaining. In a demo in a car parking zone, the automotive even drove itself ahead and again just a few occasions to make sure it was completely centered within the spot. The automotive can then extract itself from the house later; it’s going to drive ahead as much as six toes at a time whilst you maintain a button on the fob. The function, which apparently meets all relevant US legal guidelines and will likely be provided at launch, was initially designed in deference to the ultra-narrow parking areas of Hyundai’s dwelling market of Korea.

Pricing for the Hyundai Nexo has nonetheless not been introduced, although Hyundai will let clients each lease and buy the automotive when it launches on the finish of this yr. As a degree of comparability, the Toyota Mirai might be leased for $349 per 30 days or bought for $59,285, whereas the Honda Readability fuel-cell is obtainable just for leasing, at $369/month. Additionally, due to the place you’ll find hydrogen stations (extra on that in a second), the Hyundai Nexo will initially solely be offered within the San Francisco Bay Space and larger Los Angeles, California.

OK, however the place do I fill it up?

That is the largest chicken-and-egg downside for any fuel-cell automotive. Hyundai says that at the moment there are 35 public hydrogen filling stations in California, with plans for a complete of 59 to be operational by 2020. And there are plans for extra hydrogen networks in Hawaii and sure Northeast states. However for probably the most half, Hyundai has to attend for different corporations to construct hydrogen stations.

“We’re a automobile producer and we’re not an vitality firm, so we depend on vitality corporations … to spend money on fueling infrastructure,” says O’Brien.

Filling with hydrogen is fast and straightforward; I watch as a Hyundai staffer demonstrates doing so at a station within the Los Angeles space. You merely join the pump hose to the automotive, swipe your fee card and wait. It is as easy and as brisk as topping up with unleaded, and totally filling the Nexo ought to take lower than 5 minutes.

Costs for hydrogen presently vary from about $10 to $16 per kilogram in California, Hyundai says. If gasoline rises to, say, $5.00 per gallon and hydrogen falls to about $10/kilogram, then Hyundai claims hydrogen would begin to turn out to be extra economical on a per-mile foundation. Both means, Nexo clients needn’t fear in regards to the financials, as they obtain a card that covers $5,000-worth of gas — sufficient to drive roughly 10,000 miles — per yr.

Promising thought, unsure future

There is not any denying that the 2019 Hyundai Nexo is a reliable, technically spectacular and well-made automobile. If hydrogen stations have been on each avenue nook in America, they’d enable for refueling fuel-cell automobiles in a fraction of the time it takes to recharge an EV’s battery. Sadly, hydrogen stations are past uncommon.

It is powerful to advocate the typical buyer taking the plunge into adopting a gas that’s nonetheless very troublesome to seek out. Furthermore, automakers are launching spectacular new electrical automobiles with lengthy driving ranges, which appear to be a extra ready-to-go possibility for emissions-free motoring given the expansive charging networks throughout the nation. Nonetheless, there’s one thing to be mentioned for the cachet of driving a futuristic automobile. Anybody who buys or leases a Nexo will certainly take pleasure in realizing they’re on the reducing fringe of experimentation with new automotive vitality sources.

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