Global automakers are competing fiercely over the future of cars. Toyota is working on a hybrid car that runs on a gasoline engine with electric motors, looking at selling hybrid Lexus models in Korea, while GM, BMW and Volkswagen are concentrating on hydrogen cars, both fuel cell and internal combustion engines. Here, Hyundai-Kia Motors is watching whether hybrid or fuel cell cars will catch on before placing its chips because of the huge investment involved.
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The Toyota hybrid car RX400h
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¡ßGM¡¯s Sequel
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General Motors CEO Rick Wagoner (at the wheel) gives Shanghai Mayor Han Zhen a ride in the Sequel, GM's hydrogen powered fuel cell vehicle in the Chinese city on Monday./Yonhap
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GM at a showroom in Shanghai, China on Monday introduced its hydrogen fuel cell-powered Sequel. The car runs on electricity generated when hydrogen combines with oxygen in the air and produces only pure water vapor exhaust instead of toxic exhaust. GM chairman Rick Wagoner test-drove the car in downtown Shanghai with Shanghai Mayor Han Zheng. Wagoner said hybrid vehicles that run on both conventional gasoline engines and electric motors are only transitional, but hydrogen fuel-cell cars are the future. On one charge, the Sequel can travel 480 km, sprinting from 0-100 km/h in 10 seconds. GM is to produce only 100 Chevrolet Equinox fuel cell cars next year with the fuel cell technology from the Sequel and introduce its fuel cell models around the world.
¡ßBMW's Hydrogen 7
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BMW's Hydrogen 7
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BMW is to unveil the BMW Hydrogen 7 in Berlin, Germany on Wednesday. It runs on the power generated by the direct injection of hydrogen into the engine. The Hydrogen 7 allows users to switch between the two separate fuel tanks -- one for hydrogen and the other for regular gasoline -- at the press of a button.
The German automaker is to release the world's first production-ready hydrogen car by equipping the existing 7-series with hydrogen engines in April next year. A company spokesman said it will produce only 100 of these vehicles due to lack of hydrogen filling stations and their hefty price tag and let selected consumers in Europe and the U.S. lease the car.
¡ßVW¡¯s HTFC
Volkswagen unveiled its own high-temperature fuel cell on Oct. 31. It runs at 120 degrees Celsius, a remarkable improvement from the existing low-temperature fuel cell which can only run at a maximum temperature of 80 degrees, and thus needs a much smaller cooling system. What's more, the HTFC is lighter, smaller and less expensive to develop. The German automaker announced that it will release HTFC cars by 2010 and start mass producing them in 2020.
(englishnews@chosun.com )
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