Jaguar Land Rover to develop hydrogen-powered concept car

(Subscribe to our Today’s Cache newsletter for a quick snapshot of top 5 tech stories. Click here to subscribe for free.)

Luxury carmaker Jaguar Land Rover (JLR) announced it is developing a hydrogen-powered concept car based on the new Land Rover Defender SUV, with testing slated to begin later this year.

The concept car is part of JLR’s plan to achieve zero emissions by 2036. The company is also working on becoming a net-zero carbon emitter across its supply chain, products and operations by 2039.

“We know hydrogen has a role to play in the future powertrain mix across the whole transport industry, and alongside battery electric vehicles, it offers another zero-tailpipe emission solution for the specific capabilities and requirements of Jaguar Land Rover’s world class line-up of vehicles,” Ralph Clague, Head of Hydrogen and Fuel Cells at JLR, said in a statement.

JLR’s advanced engineering project is part-funded by the U.K. government-backed Advanced Propulsion Centre. Besides, the automaker has teamed up with R&D partners, including Delta Motorsport, AVL, Marelli Automotive Systems and the UK Battery Industrialisation Centre to research, develop and make fuel cell-based concept car, JLR said.

Also Read | All JLR cars to be fully electric by 2030; Jaguar all electric by 2025

The company will start testing its prototype by the end of 2021 in the UK to verify key attributes like off-road capability and fuel consumption. A hydrogen-powered vehicle stores high-pressure gas in tanks that is delivered into a fuel cell where hydrogen mixes with air drawn in through the air intake. The reaction of hydrogen and oxygen generates energy to move the vehicle. And water is emitted as vapour.

The global fuel cell-based EV market is small with about 25,210 vehicles in use as of 2019. And the U.S. leads the fuel cell electric vehicle (FCEV) market, followed by China, Japan and South Korea. But the Asian market is showing signs of growth with Japan leading the pack, according to International Energy Agency.

Toyota and Hyundai have also shared plans to develop hydrogen-powered vehicles. Last year, China announced policies to support hydrogen fuel cell vehicles.