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| Land Rover is developing electric cars with hydrogen fuel cells |
Land Rover is developing a hydrogen fuel cell electric vehicle based on the New Defender and plans to begin testing a prototype next year.
The prototype plan is called the Zeus Plan and is part of Land Rover's larger goal of producing zero-emissions vehicles by 2026.
Land Rover is also committed to zero carbon emissions across the supply chain, products and processes by 2039.
The Zeus project is partially funded by the Advanced Payment Centre, which is supported by the UK government.
The automaker also hired AVL, Delta Motorsport, Marelli Automotive Systems and a battery manufacturing center in the UK to help develop the prototype.
The test plan is designed to help engineers develop a hydrogen fuel system that meets the performance and capacity standards (such as traction and off-road capabilities) that Land Rover customers expect.
Fuel cells combine hydrogen and oxygen to produce electricity without combustion. Hydrogen is used to drive electric motors.
Some automakers, researchers, and policy makers advocate this technology because hydrogen fuel cell electric vehicles can fill up quickly, have a high energy density, and don't lose much range in cold weather.
Hydrogen fuel cell electric vehicles:
This means that electric vehicles can travel longer distances.
There are only a few fuel cell electric vehicles on the market called FCEVs. One of the reasons for this is the lack of gas stations, an example is the Toyota Mirai.
Data from the International Energy Agency and recent commitments to automakers suggest that this situation could change.
Last month, the BMW chief said the automaker plans to produce a small amount of the hydrogen fuel-cell X5 vehicle within the next year.
Compared to the previous year, the number of fuel cell electric vehicles worldwide nearly doubled to 25,210 in 2019
The United States leads in terms of sales despite the decline in 2019, followed by China, Japan and South Korea.
Japan is a leader in infrastructure construction. The goal is to have 200,000 fuel cell electric vehicles on the roads by 2025.
In 2019, the country installed 113 sites, nearly twice the number of the United States.
“We know that hydrogen will play a role in the future energy mix of the entire transportation industry,” Land Rover said. In addition to purely electric cars, it offers another solution to ending exhaust emissions.