Early adopters of new technologies have a tendency of paying extra for any possible repairs. Still, nothing prepared a Hyundai ix35 (aka Tucson) FCEV owner for the quote they gave him when his SUV broke down. The estimated cost for the 7-year-old vehicle was an absurd €104,000 (equal to around $114,000 at current exchange rates), not covered by the initial 5-year warranty.
Till Westberg, a businessman from the city of Bad Homburg in Germany, spend €50,200 ($55,089) for a new Hyundai ix35 FCEV back in 2016, as a replacement for his plug-in hybrid Toyota Prius. As reported by AutoBild which uncovered the story, the compact SUV with the hydrogen fuel cell was problem-free for 7 years, with the owner traveling 84,000 km (52,195 miles) in that period.
Despite the initial lack of a refueling network that forced him to drive as much as 114 km (71 miles) to refill the hydrogen tanks, Westberg was very pleased with the FCEV’s quick acceleration, silent drive, and 450-500 km (280-310 miles) driving range. However, without any apparent reason, the Hyundai stopped working, showing an error message on the screen every time the owner tried to start it up.
More: Here’s Why A Taxi Firm Is Losing Patience With Hydrogen-Powered Cars As It Mulls EV Switch
The eye-watering €103,764.17 ($113,885) repair bill is mostly attributed to the fuel cell which costs €84,875 ($93,043) before taxes. The extremely high cost is due to the fact that the ix35 FCEV was a limited-production vehicle featuring expensive technology with very limited availability of spare parts. As you can imagine, no one is going to pay that amount for servicing a used vehicle so the serious defect will mark the end of the road for the FCEV.
Westberg is unhappy with the outcome, and wants Hyundai to take the car back. In a statement to AutoBild, the automaker admitted that the repair doesn’t make economic sense and is trying to find alternative solutions for the customer.
The Hyundai ix35 FCEV remained in production between 2013-2018 before being replaced by the Hyundai Nexo. For those wondering, a fuel cell spare part for the mass-produced Nexo costs €41,650 ($45,676), although Hyundai claims this one is designed to last 10 years or 5,000 hours of operation before requiring servicing.
Currently, the only other fuel cell vehicle in the market is the Toyota Mirai, since the Honda Clarity has been discontinued and BMW’s first series production FCEV that will use Toyota tech won’t arrive before 2030. On a side note, Toyota recently announced that the next-gen FCEV powertrain which is expected in 2026 will be 50% cheaper compared to the existing one, without mentioning the actual cost.
