Hyundai has started production of the ix35 Fuel Cell Electric Vehicle which perhaps previews the facelift for the ix35.
That plan slipped just a little, but the first ix35 FCEV has now rolled of the production line in Korea (pictured above) as Hyundai work towards full scale production of the ix35 FCEV by 2015.
Initially, Hyundai are producing 1,000 ix35 FCEVs for fleet use, primarily in Europe, with the first production car heading for the City of Stockholm as part of a fleet of 17 ix35 FCEVs.
The plan is to get FCEVs on the road to allow a hydrogen refuelling infrastructure to develop before putting the ix35 FCEV on general sale in 2015, by which time the infrastructure will have matured somewhat and the expectation is that production costs will have lowered.
The ix35 FCEV is marked out from its ICE siblings by a new radiator grill, bumper, fog lamps and a super vision cluster and 7″ GPS which, when we first published photos of the ix35 running round in Korea last year, we thought was the facelift for the ix35.
Hyundai assured us it wasn’t, and that the design was simply to differentiate the FCEV from its more traditional siblings. But with a facelift imminent for the ix35 we’re starting to think that much of what Hyundai has done to the FCEV will carry over in to the 2013 ix35. No doubt Hyundai will enlighten us at some point.
The first production Hyundai ix35 FCEV will be on display at next week’s Geneva Motor Show.
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