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2019 Hyundai Nexo First Drive Review | Promise for fuel cells

According to the Kardashev scale of measuring advanced civilizations, a Type I civilization is able to harness all the power available on its home planet, including solar, wind and geothermal. A Type II civilization harnesses all the power generated by its sun. A Type III civilization harnesses all the energy of its home galaxy. Humanity, as physicist Michio Kaku is fond of saying, is a Type 0: We derive all our energy from burning dead plants and animals. And humanity being what it is, we still prefer crossovers by a vast margin. Fine, says Hyundai. We'll give you what you want, but we're going to nudge you toward Type I in the process. For 2019, the Korean automaker is launching a double-pronged attack on the internal-combustion engine with a pair of crossovers — a pure-electric version of the Kona and the hydrogen-powered Nexo. Hyundai is taking this approach because it believes electric and hydrogen fuel cell vehicles actually serve two different purposes. According to Dr. BoKi Hong of the company's fuel cell R&D division, the future won't see a one-solution-fits-all revolution in post-internal-combustion-engine (ICE) propulsion. Smaller vehicles — cars, motorcycles, Bird scooters — will be able to run solely on electricity, but Dr. Hong says that larger vehicles — cargo trucks, buses — will be powered by hydrogen fuel cells. The reason? Scalability. The larger the vehicle, the less sense it makes to equip it with a battery pack. Weight, cost and refueling time all increase along with the size of the conveyance. The longer the distance they have to travel — think cargo haulers or cross-country buses — the less sense it makes to use a battery electric vehicle (BEV). Hydrogen, on the other hand, offers a much more efficient way of storing and transporting energy. A fuel cell drivetrain can be scaled up to fit larger vehicles, but it doesn't require the same proportion of material as a battery. Plus, filling up your hydrogen tanks is as quick as a gasoline top-off, an advantage for long-distance haulers. Hyundai believes there's room for fuel cell vehicle (FCV) passenger cars as well, and the Nexo is Hyundai's latest take on a hydrogen car. Its first was introduced in 2000, based on a Santa Fe. That was followed in 2013 by a Tucson-based FCV. Unlike those, the Nexo arrives on an all-new platform not shared with an existing ICE-powered car. As it did with the Kona EV, Hyundai is offering a crossover in a segment where one doesn't really exist.

Dutch Toyota dealer has plans for old Prius batteries as solar backup

A Toyota dealer in the Netherlands is looking to the sky for power. The Louwman Hague Toyota dealership has put almost 1,000 solar panels on the roof, and there might be some Prius hybrid batteries involved. Our Dutch isn't as good as it could be and our questions to Toyota in the US haven't turned up any definitive answers, but there is some mention that these solar panels are will someday be feeding power into a bank of Toyota hybrid batteries. The 1,000 panels make up 1,600 square meters, about the size of 4.5 IMAX movie screens, and is the largest in the area. They generate around a quarter of a megawatt of energy [as our readers point out, this is what the translation says, but it doesn't make sense, so we think it might mean a quarter MW of power a day], which is enough to power 80 homes. The excess electricity will go into the battery packs that have (possibly) already been used in a Prius or another of the company's hybrid. There are many examples of automotive batteries being tested as stationary back-up power sources, and maybe this Dutch solution can be used as a guide when Toyota sets up its new US headquarters in sunny Texas.

Refreshed 2013 Toyota Landcruiser Prado gets official [w/video]

We'd seen leaked images of the the refreshed 2013 Toyota Land Cruiser Prado, now Toyota has deemed it officially ready for the European masses it is aimed at. We can only hope the masses are ready for that grille, probably the most intense of the many changes made to the volcano-eating truck. The new face and its "powerfully projecting vertical bars" were designed to "accentuate the new Toyota's rugged appearance," as if the legendarily capable SUV wasn't rugged enough. Other changes include redesigned headlight clusters, stronger character lines along the sides, new taillights and license plate "garnish" in back, and a slew of new wheel choices. Both the three- and five-door are 20 millimeters longer, all of that in the front overhang, but the approach angle apparently hasn't changed.
The new organization of trims runs from Entry to Legend, Prestige and Executive. The interior has been reorganized with better seats in the second and third rows, a new upper center console, a redesigned panel for controlling on- and off-road driving functions, reworked Optitron meters with a 4.2-inch LCD screen, and new switchgear, fabrics and color schemes. Infotainment has been upgraded with Toyota Touch 2 and Toyota Touch 2 with Go. They mirror your smartphone if said phone happens to be either a Samsung Galaxy S3 or Galaxy Note 2.
On-road driving dynamics have been improve with suspension changes, and a Rear Cross Traffic Alert added to the suite of safety features for maneuvering the beast. When it comes to the Land Cruiser's real reason for being, the five Multi-terrain Select choices and five-step Crawl Control are more easily used with a Multi-terrain Monitor reworked for more clarity.