Report: Hyundai eyes small-scale production, retail sales of fuel cell vehicle by 2012

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At a public hearing on the EPA's proposed fuel economy labels in Chicago, a Hyundai Motor America official revealed that the company's first fuel cell vehicle – to be introduced in 2012 – could extend beyond a demonstration project and land on dealer lots for limited retail sales. Hyundai's senior manager for regulation and certification, Deborah Bakker, worded it like this, " We intend to do it on a small-scale, perhaps beyond a demonstration program."

Green Car Advisor, drawing from a comment made by Bakker, reports that instead of confining the launch of fuel cell vehicles to South Korea, Hyundai is now eying branching out, with U.S. retail sales as one possibility. Bakker apparently urged the EPA to establish fuel economy ratings for fuel-cell electric vehicles prior to Hyundai's slated 2012 launch, and if the established ratings prove beneficial to the automaker, Hyundai may elect for retail sales of its fuel cell vehicle to coincide with the launch.



Photos Copyright ©2008 Jeremy Korzeniewski / Weblogs, Inc.

[Source: Green Car Advisor]

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