Hyundai Tucson sets land speed record for a hydrogen production car. But it’s meaningless.

The Hyundai Tucson FCEV – the car formerly know as the hydrogen-powered Hyundai ix35 – claims a pointless land speed record for a production car.

We’re not entirely sure what Hyundai were thinking when they took the hydrogen-powered Tucson to a dry lake bed in California with the aim of setting a new land speed record for a production car with hydrogen power. But they did. And they’re claiming a new world record as a result.

Now, the Hyundai Tucson is a very decent compact SUV, and the hydrogen-powered version does a remarkable job in delivering a completely emissions-free (at the point of use) drive that feels just like an ICE powered car, but no one would pretend it had performance credentials.

And when you look at the record Hyundai claim, you soon realise that they’ve got the record because nobody else has tried it before. Probably because we’re only just starting to see real production cars powered by hydrogen.

The underwhelming record set by the Tucson FCEV is a massive 94.6mph.

Of course, hydrogen-powered cars can go a lot faster than that, and once the technology matures and starts arriving in cars that can actually claim some sort of performance credentials, the record will disappear from Hyundai’s grasp.

In fact, the land speed record for a hydrogen-powered car is currently 286.476mph by the ‘Bucketeye Bullet 2’ run by Ohio State University, and Ford took a race version of the Fusion Hydrogen out on Bonneville in 2007 and hit 207.297mph.

Which at least seem like records worth bragging about.

Hyundai Tucson FCEV Land Speed Record Video