Government Considering Hydrogen-powered Cars: Hyundai Nexo To Get The Green Light?

Feasibility concerns regarding the safety of hydrogen as a vehicle-propelling fuel are one of the major points of consideration

• The Ministry of Road Transport and Highways draft suggests adding hydrogen cars to the Central Motor Vehicles Rules, 1989.

• No hydrogen-powered vehicles on sale in India yet.

• Hyundai has been considering the Nexo FCEV for India since last year. 

The Ministry of Road Transport and Highways has floated a draft suggesting the use of hydrogen fuel-cell powered vehicles in India. The draft issued on July 10 requests the inclusion of standards for safety evaluation of hydrogen fuel cell-powered vehicles to the Central Motor Vehicles Rules, 1989. 

First things first: how exactly does a hydrogen fuel cell-powered car work? In the most basic sense, an FCEV has fuel cells that utilise hydrogen gas to produce electricity that powers the electric motors of a vehicle. This is different from a regular electric car that derives power from an external electricity source and stores it in a much larger battery pack. 

Currently, there’s no hydrogen fuel cell-powered car on sale in India but Hyundai had shown intention of launching the Nexo FCEV in 2021. Feasibility studies for this SUV are still on but it’s unlikely to reach dealerships unless there’s supporting infrastructure. If things go on smoothly, we could see the Nexo plying our roads probably in the next couple of years, starting with the NCR (National Capital Region). 

Currently, almost every other vehicle in India runs on petrol or diesel. CNG (compressed natural gas) has also gained popularity in the past couple of decades but is yet to reach the more remote areas of the country. The EV movement as we see is quite a recent phenomenon and is limited to large metropolitan areas thanks to the lack of infrastructure (i.e. fast-charging public stations).

The rising concerns about long-term availability and the massive carbon footprint from fossil fuels in the last decades have naturally led to a shift towards the inclusion of more abundant alternative energy sources. 

The government has called for suggestions from various stakeholders including the general public. So you can also send in your viewpoints to the Joint Secretary (MVL), Ministry of Road Transport and Highways, through post or email within 30 days of issuance of notification.