Jaguar Land Rover keeps electrification options open with fuel cell Defender prototype

Jaguar Land Rover retains electrification alternatives open up with fuel cell Defender prototype

With battery electric car (BEV) buzz at its zenith, a casual observer could be forgiven for pondering the pathway to car fleet electrification is shut. Although most firms are adhering to the lead founded by Tesla and are powering their EVs making use of on-board batteries charged from an exterior grid, a handful are also establishing fuel-cell-powered EVs that produce electric power specifically in just the car – early adopters include things like Toyota, Honda and Hyundai. Now, Land Rover has confirmed that it will launch a fuel-cell-powered Defender prototype in 2022 to further examine the technological know-how.

Fuel cell electric vehicles (FCEVs) provide a number of strengths as opposed with battery-powered electric vehicles. Crucially, FCEVs can be fast refuelled with hydrogen when they deplete their on-board storage – this negates the assortment stress of battery EVs and proficiently suggests FCEVs’ assortment is only constrained by the refuelling infrastructure that supports them. In addition, an EV with a fuel cell is normally lighter than an equivalent EV with a battery pack – this weight saving enhances driving assortment and eats up much less of the vehicle’s greatest permissible weight, permitting for much more cargo ability. This weight saving is why the likes of Land Rover and BMW etc with mid- and full-size SUVs are checking out FCEV options.

There are also drawbacks to fuel cells that will need to have to be tackled in advance of they can problem BEV dominance. Critically, the refuelling infrastructure to assistance FCEVs does not exist still. BEV charging networks have begun to roll out in numerous nations, but hydrogen refuelling stations are nonetheless very scarce. In addition, the price tag of building hydrogen at this time helps make it much more high-priced than fossil fuels, so FCEVs do not still symbolize a price tag saving more than combustion-powered styles.

The the greater part of hydrogen is at this time created by cracking it out from fossil fuel hydrocarbon sources – dubbed grey hydrogen – denting its environmental qualifications. This approach can be somewhat enhanced by capturing the CO2 in advance of it is introduced into the environment – called blue hydrogen. Truly environmentally friendly hydrogen extracted by electrolysis of h2o making use of renewable power is acknowledged as green hydrogen. The much less-than-green qualifications of most present-day hydrogen creation strategies has led VW’s Chairman Herbert Diess to question the viability of FCEVs for light vehicles. Diess states that even green hydrogen may possibly confirm to be far too high-priced and far too scarce.

Even with nonetheless-unanswered questions about the long-phrase viability of hydrogen as a fuel, Land Rover is holding its alternatives open up with Project Zeus – a fuel-cell powered Defender prototype. The corporation cited benefits of this method including FCEVs’ greater power density than BEV powertrains, their speedy refuelling abilities and their minimal assortment loss when confronted with lower temperatures – a thing that can have a obvious impact on the assortment of most battery EVs.

Land Rover is fast to place out that it sees fuel cells as “complimentary to battery electric vehicles…on the journey to web zero car emissions”, indicating that the corporation does not expect the technological know-how to swap its battery EV strategy. On the other hand, it famous that fuel cells ended up “ideal” for bigger, more time-assortment vehicles – this is thanks to the weight saving supplied by a fuel cell powertrain as opposed with a battery-electric one, blended with the capability to refuel fast when needed.

This clarifies why the corporation has decided to launch the technological know-how in a prototype Defender instead than the scaled-down Evoque or an on-road-oriented Jaguar design – these styles will see much less of an outsized profit from making use of a fuel cell instead than heavy on-board batteries as opposed with heavier styles. Fuel-cell-powered vehicles are envisioned to price tag much more than equivalent battery EVs when they attain commercialisation, so it helps make perception to apply the technological know-how to bigger, much more high-priced styles. Charges in these segments are much more elastic than scaled-down vehicles with tighter margins, so buyers are much more likely to acknowledge a selling price boost to gain fuel cell technological know-how.

In accordance to the UK’s non-financial gain Advanced Propulsion Centre (APC), financial investment in JLR’s Project Zeus is valued at GBP17.6 million, with GBP8.7 million of that coming specifically from the APC alone. The task is also supported by high-performance powertrain developer AVL and the UK’s Delta Motorsport. In addition, the technological know-how draws on a exclusive cooling program and warmth exchanger made by Marelli Automotive Programs.

JLR’s conclusion to trial a fuel cell powertrain in one of its bigger styles echoes an announcement from BMW in September 2020 that it would introduce a small number of hydrogen-powered X5 SUVs in 2022. BMW’s trial styles are also intended to take a look at the viability of hydrogen as a fuel for light vehicles, and come as the result of a collaboration concerning BMW and Toyota 1st agreed in 2013. Japanese manufacturers are the present-day leaders in FCEVs – Toyota has now supplied two generations of the Mirai FCEV sedan for sale though Honda has formerly offered versions of its FCX Clarity sedan with a hydrogen fuel cell.