Hyundai ix35 Fuel Cell: <b>car review</b> | Martin Love | Technology | The <b>...</b> |
| Hyundai ix35 Fuel Cell: <b>car review</b> | Martin Love | Technology | The <b>...</b> Posted: 21 Nov 2015 10:00 PM PST Price: £53,105 Hydrogen-powered cars are like buses. You wait years and years and then two come along at once: Hyundai's ix35 Fuel Cell and Toyota's Mirai. Both are seriously expensive, will be built in tiny numbers and face almost unimaginable infrastructure difficulties. Simply refuelling will be their biggest hurdle as currently there are only a dozen hydrogen stations in the world – though three of them are here in Britain. Yet these two cars could well be the future of motoring. For decades, using compressed hydrogen gas has been seen as the next big step towards powering sustainable vehicles. The cars produce nothing from the tailpipe except droplets of water. Hydrogen is also the simplest and most abundant element in the universe. Putting those two factors together is surely a win-win for drivers and the planet… Well, almost, fossil fuels still need to be burned to pressurise the hydrogen. But there are vast emission savings to be gained. Hyundai can claim to have won the race to get its hydrogen car into production first. The ix35 is currently the only model on sale in Britain; Toyota's Mirai doesn't arrive until next month. It's an amazing testament to Hyundai's investment in innovation that it is in this pioneering position – especially so when you realise the Korean firm only sold its first car in Britain 10 years ago.
With a build-up like this you'd think the game-changing hydrogen car would be a sci-fi fantasy of futuristic curves and swirling lines. In fact, the clever technology has just been shoehorned into a standard ix35 – the brand's bestselling SUV. You'd walk past it in a car park and not look twice. But beneath the mundane hood lies some real magic. The car is in effect a miniature power plant. A device called a fuel cell converts hydrogen gas to electricity which then powers the car. So it's hydrogen-powered but electrically driven. Climb in and it feels instantly familiar on the inside, too. There are no flashy graphics or theatrical sound effects to alert you to the fact that you are heading into motoring's future. The only discernible difference is slightly less boot space where one of the car's two hydrogen tanks is located. Like any electric car it is extremely quiet and effortless to drive. Who knew the future would be so banal? Refuelling – if you do stumble across a station – takes three minutes and will cost you about £50; for that you'll get about 350 miles. It's the equivalent of a none-too-impressive 60mpg. The car of the future? Not quite, but it's getting there…
As the festive season gets underway it's worth reiterating that many drink drive convictions happen the morning after the night before. In fact, the latest figures from the Department of Transport puts it at 18.6%. To help you avoid this, AlcoSense is launching two new breathalysers, the Pro and the Ultra, with alcohol sensors derived from police units. Designed in the UK, both breathalysers provide live on-screen feedback and offer levels of accuracy, reliability and consistency that we as consumers have not been able to access until now. The units have several excellent features. They are pre-loaded with all the different limits in every country, so if travelling in Europe, for instance, you wouldn't be caught out by different levels when crossing borders. Also, they feature an 'estimated time until sober' with an alarm that alerts you to re-test again when it is likely you will be safe to drive. The AlcoSense Pro costs £129.99 (£149.99 from February 2016) and the Ultra is £249.99 – which isn't cheap but considering the alternatives could be a bargain. Both are available from Halfords stores nationwide or online at alcosense.co.uk. Email Martin at martin.love@observer.co.uk or follow him on Twitter at @MartinLove166  |
| Renault Kadjar: 'A very French sort of SUV' – <b>car review</b> <b>...</b> Posted: 20 Nov 2015 10:00 PM PST I have a delusion that I'm somehow immune to plushness, that I can see through fancy stitching and embossed lettering and leather finish, and intuit my way, monastically, to the true value of the thing beneath. It is total manure. I love a panoramic sunroof an unreasonable amount, considering the amount of time, as a responsible driver, I spend gazing through it. I had the Renault Kadjar in its range-topping Signature Nav version. They must have seen me coming. High off the road and handsome, it is a very French sort of SUV: much more, "Join us – we're on a safety-first journey to a ski lodge" than the Scando-German, "Check out my girth – in a clash with an elk, I'd definitely win" (let alone the Anglo-Saxon, "By the glint of my bull bars, you can see I'd very easily be adapted to suit a paranoid yet thrifty dictator"). Indented tail lights adorn a cute rear end and roof rails make you look sporty, even when you know you're not. Children like it because it is red and it takes a lot of clambering into. It has both cruise control and speed limiting, which is handy if you want to get on a motorway and go immediately to sleep. That's not what I wanted: it's very well designed for a long drive, the posture is right, it has a good weight, neither lumbering nor light, and it moves smoothly through its six gears with a touch of impatience, as though it wants only what's best for you and your journey time. On an epic six-hour trudge to the West Country and back (same evening), I was impressed: every now and then, stuck in some weird snarl-up, I'd notice that I didn't look as catastrophically grumpy as everyone else. Related: On the road: Bobbin Brownie – bike review Was it because of my hill-start assist, or the fuel economy (London to Wells and back on half a tank)? Maybe the fact that I could feel the road, yet not its imperfections, which bolstered my impression of my own classiness? Perhaps the traffic-detection on the satnav made me more confident than I should have been that I was going the best possible way. (You have no counterfactual, do you, as the idiotic, non-GPS-equipped human? I might have got there much faster with an old-fashioned paper map, but I felt as though I had second sight.) Trying to be SUV, saloon and estate all in one has clipped its wings a bit: it has a lot of "family" features – a huge boot, more airbags than I have relatives – and won't appeal to people who like cars sleek. Whatever: I arrived in a whole variety of places in a good mood. That never happens.
Price £27,470 |
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