Passat Lingyu Fuel Cell Vehicles Arrive in the U.S.

VW Passat Lingyu Fuel Cell vehicle

By Zack Newmark
February 23, 2009 7:06 PM
Filed Under: German, Green, Hydrogen Vehicle, Technology, Volkswagen

Volkswagen Group of America will be testing 16 Shanghai Volkswagen Passat Lingyu fuel cell vehicles as part of the California Fuel Cell Partnership. The vehicles, part of a Chinese joint venture between VW and Shanghai Auto, first debuted during the 2008 Olympics.

The zero-emission cars were utilized in Beijing as fleet vehicles, clocking almost 50,000 miles. They were developed by the two auto companies and scientists from Tongji University. The Passat Lingyu can reach speeds of about 90 mph, with a range of 146 miles. Their only by-product emissions is water and oxygen.

"The Passat Lingyu prototype reflects Volkswagen Group's long standing commitment to develop new solutions for a clean future," said VW head researcher Professor Dr. Jurgen Leohold in a press release.

Rumor has it mass production of the Shanghai Volkswagen Passat Lingyu will start in China some time next year. If all goes well with a test run in California, Volkswagen would certainly consider bringing the vehicle to the U.S. as a fleet model.

Source: VW

Press Release (Click to expand)

Volkswagen Group of America Announces U.S. Arrival of 16 Passat Lingyu Fuel Cell Vehicles

- Zero Emissions Vehicles to Participate in Fuel Cell Demonstrations in Sacramento -

Volkswagen Group of America announced today that 16 Passat Lingyu vehicles will participate in fleet demonstrations at the California Fuel Cell Partnership in Sacramento, Calif. These prototype vehicles were developed in China and debuted at the 2008 Olympic Games in Beijing.

The Passat Lingyu fuel cell vehicles are being added to the existing fleet of eight Volkswagen fuel cell vehicles also at the California Fuel Cell Partnership. In total, these 24 vehicles create the largest fleet of fuel cell cars from a single manufacturer at one location anywhere in the world.

"The Passat Lingyu prototype reflects Volkswagen Group's long standing commitment to develop new solutions for a clean future," said Professor Dr. Jurgen Leohold, Head of Volkswagen Group Research.

Volkswagen Group worked with scientists at Tongji University to create these fuel cell vehicles that are based on one of China's best-selling Volkswagen platforms. The Passat Lingyu is capable of traveling at highway speeds up to 90 mph and as far as 146 miles on a single tank of fuel. The only byproduct released from the tailpipe is water and oxygen.

"These vehicles logged nearly 50,000 miles in Beijing - with zero harmful emissions. We can think of no better place to next exhibit this environmentally-friendly technology than at the California Fuel Cell Partnership," said John Tillman, program manager for Volkswagen's U.S. Advanced Powertrain Research Program. In addition to working with the California Fuel Cell Partnership, the company also operates a number of university research projects in the state.

In a quest toward sustainable mobility, Volkswagen Group is exploring a number of new technologies to achieve greater fuel efficiency and reduce harmful emissions. The company's commitment to the environment also covers the entire lifespan of a car, from the earliest stages of the manufacturing process to the vehicle's final trip to the recycling yard.

"We will not achieve sustainability alone," said Anna Schneider, director of government-industry relations for Volkswagen Group of America. "We need global solutions to global problems and these international and domestic partnerships are absolutely critical to advancing our environmental objectives."

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Tags: Volkswagen Passat, Shanghai Volkswagen Passat Lingyu

Comments

Renegade

February 23, 2009 7:13 PM

Ewww, keep it in China.It's fugly.

Joe_Limon

February 23, 2009 8:45 PM

How barbaric, you'll never get good efficiency through combustion cycles. This car is almost as bad as the prius. Badged green because the pollution isn't produced at the exhaust pipe any more. or wait... "Their only by-product from combustion is water and oxygen." the combustion word is throwing me off. Is it actually a fuel cell vehicle with a reverse electrolysis style reaction? or is it using combustion like the bmw hydrogen 7?

Edited by user on February 23, 2009 at 8:49 PM

Jon88ix

February 23, 2009 9:46 PM

first of all Joe the hydrogen 7 is beyond efficient. It is very possible to build efficient hydrogen fueled internal combustion engines and it has very little environmental impact since absolutely no carbon dioxide is formed in the combustion process but if you would have done more research before making stupid comments this passat is an actual fuel cell vehicle with an electric motor to power it. The author of the this article is the one who caused the confusion.

Joe_Limon

February 23, 2009 10:01 PM

thank you jon, but I have worked for a company making fuel cell plates. Fuel cells in part can get about 60% of the energy stored in the hydrogen... unless you pump the operating temperature up to 700 celcius. At which point it can reach as high as 80% efficiency. But most hydrogen cars store their fuel as liquid hydrogen... you have to heat almost 0k hydrogen to 900k in order to hit 80% efficiency. But as a internal compustion engine... you will only see a max of 30%... neglecting the inefficiencies and vast energy reserves required to make the power to electrolyze the hydrogen in the first place. Trust me, I have looked at hydrogen for a while and it is pointless.

BabyMilo

February 23, 2009 10:06 PM

Why is it so fugly?

abugatti

February 23, 2009 11:49 PM

how f--king dare you bring that chinese crap to our holy California!!

afterace2

February 24, 2009 12:36 AM

Old Superb trying to look like the new Passat

genie

February 24, 2009 3:15 PM

ok joe if you've looked at Hydrogen so much then you'd know it doesn't need to be stored in liquid form, the clarity gets near 400km range from high compressed gaseous hydrogen. Yes, using energy to produce and store Hydrogen is less efficient than just charging a battery directly, but the energy density of batteries will never be competitive, so unless you add half a tonne of li-ion batteries (like Tesla, imagine how sustainable adding 500kg of li-ion batteries to every car produced will be) an EV car will limited to city runabouts. And before anyone sprouts out 'but batteries will improve heaps, we've only just starting using them!', they won't. Because we've been developing battery technology for longer than the combustion engine, what we have now took us a century to get to, so what makes people think overnight we'll quadruple our achieveable energy density in batteries? Fuel cell and related technology is no were near as developed as battery technology, its at the tip of the development cost curve. Already scientists are breeding bacteria that produce H2 gas from waste products, using renewable energy to power water electrolysis will make H2 CO2 neutral, and our existing infrastructure can convert over (I'm talking things like density of petrol stations in cities and the country) and the way hundreds of millions of people around the world use their cars would not have to change (referring to refuelling and flexibility of use). EV's have a niche, but they are not the answer by a long way.

Joe_Limon

February 24, 2009 6:54 PM

I dare say you're wrong. Hydrogen isn't very energy dense at all. You can get 400kms of range from conventional electric cars as well, and with more power. The trouble is that with most batteries dropping them below a certain percent charge kills their life span. For wet cells it's about 50% and gel cells are even worse at about 80%. The chevy volt could potentially get about 300km per charge, but the consequences on battery life would be horrendous. Also, there have been tremendous steps forward in recent years towards the development of even higher efficiency faster charging batteries. Often dubbed "nano tech" we are finding ways to charge entire car batteries in 15 minutes! A number of new technologies are on the way to lower that 50-80% zone that kills batteries, so in a way you are wrong, yes we will quadruple our energy density of batteries within the next few years. "using renewable energy to power water electrolysis will make H2 CO2 neutral" that ones a good one. You do realize that wind turbines take more energy to make then they will ever get out of them, that's why the only ones buying them are oil companies hoping to look greener. As to water damns, they too have horrendous effects on the environment by flooding millions of acres of land that could be used for growing something we need more then energy... food. The only way you can "greenly" create energy is through nuclear power, but it's to bad most greenies hate it. In the ideal future I see, nuclear power plants and ev's. Hydrogen is expensive, takes way more energy then you will ever get out of it, and if you ever want to get a decent level of power out of it you end up having to use a fuel cell system that ways more then the battery option, or burn it in an internal combustion engine and use 3-4 times more fuel... seriously, hydrogen isn't green as you might think it is. Just because you can breathe/drink the emissions from the tail pipe doesn't mean it isn't screwing up the world elsewhere.

genie

February 25, 2009 12:27 AM

Joe, thats ridiculous. Charging a say 100KWh battery pack in 15 minutes will require each house to have a power line capable of delivering 400kWh. Thats the sort of power that entire street would use currently, requiring whole cities to have their power distribution systems completely overhauled. Wind turbines requiring more energy to construct than they'll ever produce, where do you get your facts from, the oil industry? I notice you completely miss all the other methods of capturing renewable energy, tidal, solar (thermal, PV and concentrated PV), thermal, wave power.

I never mentioned the issue of li-ion batteries having significant degradation in energy density over time either, but as you clearly know about it then you should know how unsustainable it will be to keep producing the millions of tonnes of batteries required for the automotive industry alone under your plan. You mention nanotech which is basically an umbrella term for our advancement in material science and understanding, as the solution for improving batteries, yet that same leap in material understanding can and is being applied to fuel cell technology, lowering the heat and hydrogen required, improving efficiency.

H2 gas is not very dense, even under very high compression, but its still more energy dense than the most modern of batteries. And methods of storing it are improving through the same nanotech that you think will save batteries.

Open your eyes, actually do some more research than whatever FUD you've been reading so far, and then at least your decision will be informed, rather than baseless.

Joe_Limon

February 25, 2009 2:46 AM

You are right, the car I was hinting towards is the Mitsubishi iMiEV, to charge it in 15 minutes it has a charging pack. Not really that different then the Clarity's home hydrogen station... only more efficient. Solar, tidal, geo thermal and wave power are all very very low output energy sources per dollar invested and as such are not worth mentioning in this discussion. You may find this link interesting as to prices of wind turbines. http://www.windpower.org/en/tour/econ/index.htm You seem to have hydrogen fuel cells wrong, you don't want to lower the heat of the reaction, you want to keep it as high as possible while keeping the mechanical components in operation. Are you incorporating the weight of the fuel cells along with the weight of hydrogen? I am pretty sure that a tank of compressed hydrogen and fuel cells will be less energy dense then a battery of a similar weight. The efficiencies of hydrogen fuel cells are like the efficiencies of combustion engines, it is thermodynamically impossible to get vast improvements out of fuel cells without changing the operating conditions. The main operating condition that effects their efficiency is temperature. And to get a super efficient hydrogen car would require a tremendous amount of energy every time you start the car. Which is a lot for automobiles. If you want to use hydrogen with the hydrogen producing bacteria (basically solar or bio material powered) then you would be best off having a dedicated steady state non mobile hydrogen fuel cell powering short run electric vehicles. [edit] also, I like how you can state my argument baseless when you yourself have used just as if not more baseless of arguments.

Edited by user on February 25, 2009 at 2:47 AM

jeremy

March 9, 2009 2:53 PM

hallo,guys,the fuel cell car is made in Shanghai VW in China,till now it's still a prototype. i don't think it will be drived popular in Markt.it costs nearly 3 Mio per car,at the same time,there are still a lot of problems with it.so i think Electric auto with powerful battery will be instead the traditional cars.

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