First drive: Hard cell for Kia

IT’S not often a car company sends us thousands of kilometres to test a car that is already three years old – and has been superseded by a newer model – but in this case the car’s technology is still so new that it has not even gone on sale.

The Kia Sportage Fuel Cell Electric Vehicle (FCEV) was announced in 2006, and examples of this hydrogen fuel-cell vehicle are already in service in Korean trials.

Clothed in a body that has been around since 2004, the Sportage FCEV has a 100kW electric motor that propels it to 100km/h in 12 seconds and on to a top speed of 152km/h. It has a range of 400km on its tank containing 3.5kg of hydrogen at a pressure of 350bar pressure.

Yet Kia already has a bigger and better fuel-cell vehicle. Its large SUV Mohave FCEV has an 115kW motor and a 100kW auxiliary supercapacitor, propelling the 2250kg SUV to a top speed of 160km/h. Hydrogen storage is in a tank under 700bar.

Kia says it is working with 120 partner companies to develop technology for a production FCEV capable of being started when the temperature drops to minus 30 degrees, that is 60 per cent more efficient than current systems and has a fuel stack half the size of existing units.

This fourth generation fuel-cell vehicle will enter small-scale production in 2012.

Driving the Sportage FCEV is a familiar sensation if you have ever caught electric-motor public transport, such as a tram or train – or even a golf buggy. The acceleration is linear – no peaks, just constant propulsion.

In fact, it feels a little slow, but then, it is lacking the usual petrol engine soundtrack that gives the familiar petrol-driven sense of acceleration through the gears.

Once (briefly) settled into an even 100km/h at the short, straight Namyang test track at the Kia R&D facility, the FCEV was similar to a petrol Sportage at an easy cruise, with just a little tyre and wind noise.

Under acceleration, the noise is something else – a distinct whine, believed to be the pump sending hydrogen into the fuel cell. Loading up the motor at speed made it seem even noisier.

The Kia engineer sitting alongside me said the next generation FCEV would be much quieter.

The brakes – using regenerative technology – lacked both feel and power assistance. Accentuating this feeling is the heaviness of the Sportage FCEV.

Under the bonnet, the FCEV looks as if a rock band has shoved some speakers in there. A couple of black powercoated aluminium boxes house the fuel-cell stack and inverter. The electric drive system is under the load compartment floor.

The jury is still out on whether spending large amounts of research and development money on fuel-cell vehicles will be worthwhile – or the 21st century equivalent of the Beta cassette.

Even Byung-Tae Yea, executive vice president of Kia’s Asia and Pacific operations, admitted at meeting last week that his researcher’s best guess for mainstream automotive technology rested with the EV.

For now at least, the fuel-cell vehicle is too complex and too expensive to be viable as a mainstream model.

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