More on hydrogen and fuel cell vehicles, from Automotive News:
- The U.S. Department of Energy is in the process of investing $7 billion into a series of regional hydrogen production hubs to make sure it’s available for transportation and heavy industry.
- A hydrogen fuel cell system by cellcentric, a joint venture between Daimler and Volvo, was shown at at Daimler Truck Capital Market Day. cellcentric has been a fuel cell provider for cars for a few years, but with the Daimler and Volvo JV acquisition, the company is focusing on developing that technology for the truck market.
- The European Union is considering making a regulatory change that would place hydrogen-powered heavy-duty trucks as zero-emission vehicles.
- General Motors has created a lab where cells are built into stacks that are used fuel cell systems. The stacks each have 300 cells that create 300 watts of power.
Hydrogen Fuel News also reported that the automaker has been developing its Hydrotec hydrogen fuel cell technology project, and is now ready to start equipping heavy-duty commercial vehicles such as trucks with the technology. - GM and a few industry experts believe that hydrogen will be a solid replacement for diesel, more than gasoline. That suggests cars will be replaced more by electric vehicles and zero emission commercial trucks will be a mix of hydrogen and EVs.
- InsideEVs reported that the second quarter saw the sales volume increase year-over-year in California, where the series-produced models are available for sale. It was also the highest quarterly volume ever — 1,076 new hydrogen fuel cell cars were sold, which is 34% higher than a year ago. The Toyota Mira same most of those sales, with the Hyundai Nexo reporting 40 of these vehicles sold.
And in other news………
BYD ATTO 3 top seller in Sweden. The Chinese automakers’ all-electric SUV sold in the European market came in at No. 1 for electric vehicles sold in Sweden in July 2023. At 721 units sold, it beat No. 2 VW ID.4, which came in at 710 units sold in that country last month. That ATTO3’s battery pack is a 60.48 kWh BYD Blade Lithium Iron-Phosphate (LFP). It has claimed range/battery capacity – 260 miles, and 351 city (WLTP) — Worldwide Harmonized Light Vehicles Test Procedure. The highway cruising range estimate – 158.6 miles, according to Forbes. The ATTO 3 has a top-of-the-range version ipriced at £38,990 ($50,000) after tax in Britain. The automaker also recently launched that model in Italy along with its all-election BYD Han.
Lucid lowers price on Air: Lucid announced it will be dropping its Lucid Air to $83,900 for the Dual Motor all-wheel drive version, that includes the $1,500 destination fee. That would make it more competitive to the base Tesla Model S Dual Motor that currently starts at $89,880 including a $1,390 destination charge. The Lucid Air Pure has an EPA-rated range of 410 miles with standard 19-inch wheels and 384 if you go with the 20-inch wheels. Tesla’s offering has an EPA-rated 405-mile range with its standard 19-inch wheels or 375 miles with the available 21-inch wheels. In other new, Lucid’s net loss for the second quarter was $764.2 million, or 40 cents per share. A year ago, Lucid reported a net loss of $555.3 million, or 33 cents per share. Revenue in the second quarter rose to $150.9 million from $97.3 million in the same period in 2022, according to CNBC.
Musk may be having surgery: Tesla CEO Elon Musk announced on X (formerly known as Twitter) that he may need to have surgery and will be having an MRI on his neck and upper back. He’ll be posting more information on it during this week. Musk, 52, may need to hand over duties for a while — as head of X, Tesla, SpaceX, and Neuralink.
